Judy's Journal

 we took off for 6 days into the colour
 stayed in hotels, had nice dinners
 listened to an audio book
 talked
 it was a break
 it felt like we were in our own time capsule
 just the two of us, specks in this awesome world
I stitched,
looked out the car window

This is your life, dear friends. 

Meet it with bravery and with great love. 

Lenore Tawney 1992

Untitled felt on felt 2017 by William J O'Brien

Festive Greetings from my family to yours.

This felt on felt artwork is by William J O'Brien, and I saw it on Saturday, part of his solo show at Shane Campbell Gallery,  Chicago, Illinois USA.
It has so much positive energy and exhuberance.

It feels to me like how I feel when I am in the USA.
This is my fifth trip to the United States in 2017.
All of them have been really positive experiences, full of energy.

Chicago, Lincoln, Athens and Rosendale, Anchorage, Chicago
Full of friendly people and beautiful landscapes.

Ned and I are here to see April's two exhibitions and to bring her  home to Canada.
We drove along Lake Michigan and will return the same way.  It's a big land.

Look at the circles and the hands and the upward energy in this large applique. (60 x 72 inches)
The wintery palette.   
William J O'Brien, thank you for reminding us that the reason we are here is to grow. 

 We drove east from Athens Ohio towards New York state.
 We wanted to see our daughter in the last week of her residency at Women's Studio Workshop.
April is curious about materials .
She's exploring ceramics and printmaking
She sets up situations that make use of the wsw's kiln and press,
She allows both tools and materials to do what they each do best

Her artwork arrives.
Her artwork makes us think about how we are just specks in this big world
I took more photos of her work - maybe later I will share them.
We made our way north and west back home to Canada by way of country roads.
We noticed the immensity of the USA and the emptiness

Pema Chodron teaches that there are three principal charateristics of human existence
Three facts of life
Stop struggling against them, she says.
The three principal characteristics of human existence are impermanence, ego-lessness and suffering.
The hardest one for me to understand is ego-lessness.  what does that mean?

it's the idea of just being in the world
just being
just going
there isn't really a sun'rise' or a sun'set'.  the sun just keeps going
and although the rainbow seems so vivid and real, in truth it is no thing
it just is
I will stitch my way through this idea of egolessness and my understanding of it

I love stitching.
Stitching and me, we just are.

This Revolution Will Not Be Televised #13 by Penny Mateer and Martha Wasik, Pittsburgh Pennsylvania   from SAQA exhibition Layered Voices

I didn't sleep much during my amazing week away.

I ended my trip at Maggie Vanderweit's stunning home waiting for Ned to pick me up and take me back to the quiet of Mantioulin.  Maggie is the new Central Canada rep for the Studio Art Quilt Association. (SAQA)

This post is about my attendance at the SAQA annual conference, this year in Lincoln Nebraska.

All images included here are from the beautifully installed juried SAQA exhibition Layered Voices. It hung in one of the main galleries in the International Quilt Museum.   and they appear here with artists' permission.  The complete exhibition is available to view here.

This Revolution Will Not Be Tolerated #13, Protest Series - by Penny Mateer, detail.  cotton, photo transfers, printed, machine pieced, appliqued and quilted

"In 2014, following the announcement that NYPD officer Daniel Pantaleo would not be indicted for killing Eric Garner, the NaACP local defense fund posted a series of tweets naming 76 individuals killed in police custody since 1999. The list is on www.gawker.com "  Penny Mateer

This Revolution Will Not Be Televised #13 Protest Series by Penny Mateer, and Martha Wasik

We all stayed in the same hotel at the conference which added an intense feeling of comraderie.
The CNN news was often on and so I got dressed listening to the commentary about Trump's 100 days, or about the spy within his administration and of course about the madness re: North Korea.

Death Shroud for Democracy by Kristin LaFlamme , Portland Oregon  from the SAQA exhibition Layered Voices

Death Shroud for Democracy by Kristin LaFlamme, acrylic paint, deconstructed US flag, used clothing, sheet, embroidery floss, paint. machine pieced and hand embroidered

"Referencing the Shroud of Turin, and thus the death of an important ideal, the figure here is Uncle Sam. The disassembled US flag is a metaphor for Congress disassembling democracy.  Layers of embroidered words refer to people, ideas and actions that tear at its very fabric.'   Kristin LaFlamme

I have been struggling with this blog post.
I want to talk honestly about my experience at the conference.
When people ask me what the best thing was, upon reflection I have to say that the valuable and inspiring International Quilt Study Museum (where I spent two whole days) was incredible.
However, listening to the gentle poetic voice of art quilt pioneer star, Michael James is very near the top of my list.  In addition, the simple connecting or re-connecting with other art quilters was tremendously meaningful.  Previously, I knew most of these women through the internet.

Premonition by Dinah Sargeant, newhall California  part of the SAQA national exhibition Layered Voices on view at the International quilt museum in lincoln Nebraska until end of May 2017

Premonition detail; cotton, canvas, fabric paint, machine and hand applique   "A sensing of What might be next"  DinahSargeant

I feel a crazy need to change my life, yet I am so timid.
I am so safe with Ned right now on Manitoulin Island, northern Canada.

In Other Words by Jette Clover, Antwerp Belgium cotton, linen, dyed, painted, hand stitched, machine quilted, part of the Layered Voices exhibition

In Other Words "I love words.  They have shapes and sounds and they convey meaning.  Stitching resembles the rhythm of writing with a pen a slow, intimate process during which one becomes aware of the marking of time".  Jette Clover

When Bethany drove us out of Lincoln on the Sunday there was a horrific rain storm and truck and car traffic we didn't understand.  We drove around the bottom of Lake Michigan in the dark on highways narrowed by construction zones and blocked exits, forced into many detours.
We drove in an anxious panic, putting miles under our wheels.

Migration.   Souvenir.  by Roxanne Lasky, Bluffton South Carolina USA recycled silk saris and kimono, hand dyed cotton and linen, pieced, hand appliqued and embroidered, part of the Layered Voices exhibition

Migration. Souvenir. detail "The coat represents the complex record of personal narrative through place and time.  We move with our memories as if adorned with regal garb, armour against conflict or protection from the elements, warnings against danger, crimes against self, boundaries that prevent transgressing into growth and joy and wisdom for the future."  Roxanne Lasky

in other words by Jette Clover (detail

So, one week on the road there and then back plus the one week in Nebraska USA, with a lot of other older women who are all artists and who believe in connecting with each other - hugging and talking, exchanging 'moo' business cards, hoping for love.

So this blog post is about the conference but also about that TV set on.
It's about the ancientness of most of the other atendees and their furious networking.
It's about what filled my creative cup - (the Luke haynes exhibit at the quilt museum)
It's about feeling part of a large group of grannies and finding love there
and it's about not being able to sleep.

This Revolution Will Not Be Tolerated detail by Penny Mateer

These works reveal an over arching awareness on the part of the artists of the cycles of creation and destruction that bring about change.  Each in its way communicates a sense of the fragility and poignancy of our human condition.  The art speaks of the passage of time and how we assemble meaning from experience.  Additional layers of interpretation are exposed when we see these works in the context of the current cultural turmoil."
                                juror-curator of the layered voices exhibition for SAQA             Rise Nagin

detail of Dinah Sargeant's Premonition

It's about safety and risk
about addiction to feeling good and to ignoring reality
about yearning
about heart