The details: Dates: Saturday and Sunday October 4 and 5 Address: Shelburne Pond Studios @ 1260 Pond Road, Shelburne, Vermont Hours: 10am – 5pm What’s in the studio: lots of things but especially recent work I’ve been doing that interlaces my focus on the plants around me and my love for weaving. My work has been dreamy lately, and I’m excited to show it.
If you’re in the area and feel like stopping in, I’d love to see you! This Open Studio event is wonderful. If you haven’t participated before, there are studios open all over the state and you can pick loops that are in a region you’d like to explore. The very comprehensive maps will show you all the spots to check out. This is my second year doing it and it’s a total joy. Many thanks to the Vermont Crafts Council for putting on such a great event.
Each pane in this piece is a window into a space containing an idea, a feeling, a symbol, a material. Everything is biologic. In some cases, the material is of plants, in others of animals. In one case, the material is a secretion of the silk worm. Everything will one day biodegrade. Fleeting and beautiful. Strong to a point.
I’m waiting for the right materials to emerge for the last three panes, which will serve as the end of the story…
Until then, a preview…
What do you see? Maybe not the same as me, and that’s okay. It’s how it should be.
Hope you are doing alright, wherever you are. ~ bradie
little bits of everything here and there this and that brooms sweeping away what is not ours inviting a hold on what is thresholds beckoning then not letting go interlacements revealing the over-under dance
The Shadow of America has burst forth, Hideous in full form, Visible to the world. Not for the first time, But still, this time too Is trying our souls. Many have known this Shadow. Those able to see have recognized it, Studied it, Preached, sung, written of it. Courageous vilified for naming it. Truth-sayers killed for challenging it, taking it to court. Those countless murdered by Shadow’s effects on humans in righteous denial, Their blood is on our hands, Fostering dis-ease until we ease ourselves into taking it on, this Shadow-illness That, when denied becomes more itself, Tyrannical. To know is to descend into darkness, Where ancient Destruction lives, With Her corpse wall hooks, And His poison. No wonder there is turning away. To face Shadow is the stuff of legend. Legend’s heroes have scars, every one, Valiantly earned, Skin debt paid in the quest towards light. The lid is blown off this American dream. Now we must, oh we must! Welcome the cracked open broken heart that comes with Shadow As it swirls and climbs, Snuffing out white-washed lies, Engorged on delicious ignorance, Creating and co-creating with light Something new. A new table where all have a place, Eyes looking into eyes, with recognition, sorrow, love. This time, And again, It is an invitation.
b. mccabe hansen
Notes:
“With Her corpse wall hooks”; references Ereshkigal, Mesopotamian goddess of death and the underworld who hangs sister/goddess Inanna on wall hooks; the myth of Inanna explores many themes, including the process of descending to darkness to face that which we have not seen or accepted within ourselves, claiming our cut-off parts.
References:
Inanna, Queen of Heaven and Earth: Her Stories and Hymns from Sumer, Diane Wolkstein & Samuel Noah Kramer
Descent to the Goddess: A Way of Initiation for Women, by Sylvia Brinton Perera
“And His poison”; references Phthonos, Greek spirit and embodiment of malicious envy.
“Is trying to our souls”: Reference to Thomas Paine’s American Crisis, December 23, 1776. Excerpt: “THESE are the times that try men’s souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands by it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph.”
I heard a wonderful program on NPR this morning and just had to share it with you. I found myself nodding and smiling and feeling this wonderful sense of “Yes, Exactly”! as I listened. The segment is called: Feeling alone? 5 tips to create connection and combat loneliness and was on Morning Edition. It features Dr. Jeremy Nobel, who founded the Foundation for Art and Healing decades ago and wrote the book entitled Project UnLonely. I’d never heard of it and am so grateful to know about it now. Here’s the link to the episode. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did!
Healing Handcrafting 