I’ve been working with my dreams for more than 55 years. I began learning how to do that back in University, with my Drawing professor, who was a strong advocate for working with dreams. He encouraged his students to learn techniques like Senoi dreamwork and to make it part of their daily practice. I am so grateful to him, as I have worked with my dreams in an immersive process ever since then.
The Woven Woman mixed media figure that I am sharing today from the Oracle of Stillness series is:
“The Dreamer”.
She’s a gentle dream guide that shows up regularly in my dreams, offering wisdom, protection and guidance.
Perhaps there is a ‘Dream Guide’ that shows up in your dreams?
If there is, then do drawings, write down the dream, watch for co-incidences and synchronicities in your life. It will make your life so much more delicious!
‘The Dreamer’ is one of the ‘Grandmother’s Coat’ series that emerged from a dream, carrying all kinds of meaning and information. Follow your dreams!
Have you ever heard Harry Belafonte singing. “We Come From the Mountains”?
If you haven’t, then please google to see him singing it with the Muppets…. it is the most enchanting song that is all about the ways in which we are all connected.
This Woven Woman from my Oracle of Stillness series is another of the Grandmother’s Coat group of mixed media weaving. Her name is, “She Speaks for the Mountains”.
She came from a dream in which I saw a majestic mountain that was clearly a Goddess.
She moved slowly, slowly and I saw that she was made up of countless tiny elements- each one completely interwoven with all the others, with all of life…. and each element needs to be tended, carefully, tenderly with tenderness. How we treat each element is reflected in all of life…
Living with chronic illness is mostly really the pits. But I have found that the sheesh-awfulness of it has honed my radar to notice and dive into the beautiful moments that unfold in unexpected and wonder filled ways.
For instance, one of our neighbors is the loveliest person… you can feel him quietly walking down the street with his dear little dog. He has a – hmmm- what to call it ??? a perceptible quality of lightness and contemplative presence and palpable kindness that is a joy to behold.
( My husband has this same gentle, loving, powerful presence.)
Being grateful for these lovely people (and ALL the precious ones) who carry the energy of peace inspired me to weave the Woven Woman, “Peace” .
It may look like she is alone, but if you look closely, you will see that there are actually 3 figures all interwoven…. all 3 of them are Mermaids and perhaps the 2 smaller Mermaids are the gifts that Peace brings… perhaps they embody the wish for Peace to flow like the oceans…..
Oh! This reminds me of an adorable moment yesterday… I had stepped outside to say goodbye to my daughter and grandson as they drove away from afternoon tea with us. I was chatting with our next door neighbors and we were utterly delighted when a gaggle of little kids burst out the front door, brandishing various bits and pieces of their Halloween costumes, and flew off the porch. The lead child trumpetted: Imagination for the win!!!!
And, we three adults all simultaneously put our hands on our hearts and swayed slightly and nodded: That’s what it’s all about!
About 7 years ago, I began working on 2 of the larger figures in the Oracle of Stillness: Weaving Coherence in the Chaos Woven Women by drawing a large Goddess figure in pencil on a piece of paper that was over a meter (a yard) square. I then took very heavy wire (fencing wire- probably 6 or 8 gauge) and with pliers and wire cutters, freeform shaped the ‘Patience and Perseverance Advise the Ancient Ones.
The rest of the Oracle of Stillness Woven Women evolved from her, so she is the Mother of all the pieces in the show.
I find it amusing that she was also the last of the Woven Women to be finished… I was frantically sewing the last of the tiny Goddess figures to her as my husband, Jim and our grandson, were unwrapping the other figures all around me in the gallery!
She evolved over the years… she hung in the window of my studio for several years, as I watched the shadows that she cast and tried different ideas out with her.
Then a few years later, just before Covid hit our family, I asked Jim to please weld me a heavy weight version of the large Goddess, so he took my initial drawing and carefully cut and measured and welded a version of her. He used 1/4 inch steel rod to formulate her and whew… she is hefty!
This iteration eventually became: “Flourish, Yes, Even in the Middle of All This”.
She is very dear to my heart, as our daughter, Chloe Findlay-Harder, who is a fused glass artist, taught several workshops to our family and I made the face for ‘Flourish’ in fused glass…. I have painted many layers of oil paint over the initial face to arrive at the final face. I loved our classes with Chloe and have made many elements in fused glass for the Oracle of Stillness figures. Lots of them have fused glass faces and butterflies and other elements.
Chloe’s husband, Clancy, and I had a wonderful afternoon one Sunday when our family were gathered for our weekly dinner together. Clancy and I spent a long time talking about ‘Flourish’ and how she needed to evolve. He and I circled her and shifted elements and talked about the impact of color and texture. It was a wonderful and inspiring time of deep connection…. and, shockingly, not long after, he died of a blood clot caused by the Covid virus. Needless to say, this is a piece that I will never part with.
Clancy also made me a fused glass piece that represented a loom, and I had his permission to include it in one of the Oracle of Stillness figures.
It is the rectangle at the base of “Remembering”, which is a tribute to his golden heart and beautiful presence.
Her face is fused glass as well.
“Flourish, yes even in the middle of all this” and “Patience and Perseverance Advise the Ancient Ones” both took years to complete…. I would work on them, and live with them and come back, over and over. They each are about a meter tall by a meter wide.
After I had a dream in which I discovered that the Oracle of Stillness Woven Women all needed wings, I designed and crocheted their wings and then built wire armatures to stretch and secure the wings in full expansion.
I love the shadows that they cast on the walls behind them.
They are on display at Harcourt House Gallery in Edmonton AB until the 22 of November.
These 3 figures are love songs to sing sorrow into compassion and grief into a larger love, as love opens and blossoms and transforms in unexpected, heart-rending miraculous ways…. ❤
I wanted to make something special to wear to the opening of my solo show- The Oracle of Stillness: Weaving Coherence in the Chaos.
I’ve been weaving this fabric on many different looms for about 5 years!
I worked my chops off to finish the last length of it, and then agonized over what on earth I would make with it…. a vest? a tunic? a shirt? a smock? a tabard? ack….
Finally, I settled on a coat-ish, duster-ish, big shirt-ish sort of a thing and cut out slopers and spent a whole lot of hours basting it together, trying it on, pinning new seam lines, basting them, snip snip snip
over and over and over until I was happy with the shapes:
I played around with fitting the various pieces of fabric onto the slopers
And, then eeeeeeeeeeeek I cut out the shapes! Hmmm something horrible has happened to the colors in the photo below… sorry about that!
Then -the long slow process of hand and machine stitching all the fabric components together…
I don’t like the raw edges of hand woven fabric, so I cover them with bias tape:
and hand woven narrow bands:
Every seam is sewn at least 3 and often 4 times (and of course, I zig zag stitched all the raw edges before doing anything at all).
It’s a slow and pleasant process- very meditative and contemplative.
And, of course- it has pockets! Pockets are essential!
Here’s the back:
It’s a very simple construction of an easy going and comfortable coat/duster/big shirt that I plan on wearing for years.
But first… to the opening of my show on Friday night at Harcourt House Gallery in Edmonton.
Hmmmm…. what to wear under it? Probably basic black shirt and pants, but jeans are tempting, too….
I am pretty sure that I have enough of the fabric left to cobble together a vest, too…
Today, I was talking to a dear friend about the incredibly difficult time that she is going through.
I told her about something that has been really helpful to me when I am in a crisis or challenge or other misery…. it’s a powerful, but simple way of getting through the suffering…
I quietly tell myself: One breath and then another, one step, then another and sometimes, count to 3 and repeat, then repeat again…..
This is the Woven Woman mixed media tapestry that I wove for my ‘Oracle of Stillness: Weaving Coherence in the Chaos”, to illustrate and illuminate this healing practice:
“One breath and then another, one step, then another” is one of 50 Woven Women that I have created over many years for the Oracle of Stillness collection.
Not all 50 of the tapestries have made it into my solo show that is opening Oct 17 at Harcourt House Gallery in Edmonton (the collection is too big and the space can’t hold them all).
If you are in or near Edmonton on the 17th, please come to the opening- my beautiful husband and 2 of his close friends (they have been ‘The Jim Findlay Trio’ for 21 or so years) will be playing for the opening.
It’s going to be special!
I’ll be posting more photos of the pieces in the show as I can gather up the energy to do it (life with Lupus and Long Covid is a challenge and I have to manage my energy reserves-‘taint easy, but like they say: Tis what tis).
AND… I hope that, in these astonishingly unsettling times, the practice of
One breath and then another, one step, then another
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