BubbeWisdom

Memory Quilt 2019

Favorite Deconstructed Denim
SilkDenim Flying Geese
Steve’s Painting Pants
Leftover Shirt Patches
Sandy’s Ugly Comforter Top
Hemp Shirt bought at Zen Center
Nana’s Caftan
Black Ribbed Turtleneck
Alex’s Table Cloth
Gottlieb Fabric
created print of Shekinu Embroidery
Ronda’s Hemp J Jill Jacket
Nicole Miller Pittsburgh Tie
Gabriel’s Sweater and Termal Top
Jody’s Danish Bread Basket
Heath’s Zen Robe
Print Shop Canvas Bag
Steve’s Indian Sack made into Bag
Special Olympics Golf Shirt
Tie Dye Tee-Shirts
Green Embroidered Tee
J Jill Pale Pink Textured Tee
Blue Fish Tee

On the verb of God: When we give a name to the nameless it is a stumbling block that trips most people. We think that if it has a name, it has an identity. An identity comes with attributes. So we think we know something about it. This is a mistake.

For thousands of years this mistake has become ingrained in the human psyche. The word “God” suggests an embodiment of something that can be grasped. We have given a name to the unknown and unknowable and then have spent endless time trying to know it. We try because it has a name; but we must always fail because it is unknowable. Judaism is so concerned about this misunderstanding, it goes to great lengths to avoid naming God. Yet various names seep through because our minds cannot work without symbols.

What then is the God that is written about in the bible? Kabbalists teach that the very first line of Genesis has been mistranslated. Most people think it says: “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.” But the actual words in Hebrew can be read another way. A Kabbalist could say: “With a beginning, [It] created God [Elohim], the heavens and the earth.”

That is to say, there was an initial creation out of nothingness the potential to begin–Beginningness. Once there was a beginning, God (in a plural form) was created–a God to which the rest of creation could relate. Then the heavens and the earth were created.

The implication of this interpretation profoundly affects our entire relationship with God and creation, for it says that all the names we have for God and all the ways in which we relate to God are a few degrees removed from the source of creation that precedes even nothingness. This is called Ein Sof, which is not the name of a thing but is an ongoing process.

On Torah study: The literal account of the five books of Moses is almost impossible to appreciate without assistance. Hundreds of commentaries exist, and, as we might imagine, many offer interpretations that contradict others. Nobody agrees that there is a definitively “correct” way to read the Torah. In fact the oral tradition suggests that there are at least 600,000 different interpretations, representing the number of those who received the Torah through Moses at Mt. Sinai.

This is what makes the study of Torah so interesting. If we simply accept the literal meaning of what it says, then it is merely a book with many unusual stories. If we engage it, however, work with it and use a variety of methods to analyze the text, it yields hidden clues that lead us on to further investigation. Study like this, a continuous give and take, becomes a mystical relationship between the text and the one studying it.

Listen to Cooper’s own words in this interview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AxEaMaOumA0

It Takes A LifeTime-ReBlog

Some of my personal favorites

This is a reblog from 2015 I discovered while researching my newest project. It remains a thoughtful answer to the most often asked question.

The big question that I am getting lately is- How long does it take you to make that? Oh my, what a loaded question. There are so many factors that go into each and every quilt: the purpose, the budget, the materials, and the use to name the most basic. That requires a face-to-face meeting with the client- asking critical questions to understand the needs and goals for the project.

I go through the materials and organize them to make sense for this particular project. I begin with my experience- recalling past projects that fit into the same classification. For example, someone is interested in a curtain- I look back at all of my curtain projects and see what will help me this time.
I search through other pieces of art that will engage my creativity looking for innovations that will help make this piece better.

I decide on the format- do I need a drawing? a pattern? a series of cuttings? Are there different components to the project- does it need a border- will it be used as wall art? What is the backing?
Finally, the work begins, a very organized and speedy process of cutting, piecing, ironing, pinning, observing, correcting, noting, quilting, binding………………..

How long does it take to make a quilt? A lifetime of experience.

Three Seraphim

Machine pieced & hand quilted t-shirt remnants, old quilt remnants, assorted yarns

On view at the 107th Associated Artists of Pittsburgh Annual Exhibition; Westmoreland Museum of American Art; November 9, 1919-January 26th, 2020.

I use ordinary textile remnants to create art quilts. This work is one in a series of mantles representing spiritual entities. The mantle, like a quilt, serves the practical function of keeping one warm while protecting from the elements. These mantles serve as symbolic divine representation multiplied by the power of three. The purple stars of Sariel evoke inner wisdom. The eyes of Chamuel, surrounded in green, channel strength and courage. The yellow and orange wheels of Uriel bring knowledge and insights.

Prayer To Michal

Michal the Archangel, the champion of The Divine’s people, help us in our struggle against evil in our hearts and in our midst. Guard and guide those whose special task is to work for the welfare of all. Keep our homes and families safe from harm. Be at our side at life’s end and lead us safely to The Divine whose great love we cherish and whose mercy we implore. Amen

A Patch Work Life: The Hands On Guide To Living Piece By Piece

Quilt:
Voluminous layers
Countless hues and values
Embedded with meaning
Personal herstory
Minuscule patches that speaks volumes
Ensconcing with warmth and protection
Hand Stitched patterns
Endless sizes, shapes and forms
Piecing, Stitching, Darning, Mending, Ripping

Producing Quilts:
The next one is always better than the one before
Organized cutting and construction steps
Staying at the machine until the entire set is pieced
Process over product
Creating something original comes unexpectedly without planning

Memory Quilts:
One little patch tells its own story
Stains and holes add meaning
Satisfies individual needs for healing
Can heal through past, present and future

Essence of Me:
Strong family ties
Thinking outside the box
A little ahead and to the left
Reticent to get involved yet too quick to jump in
Problem solver, looking for practical solutions
Transforming continually from being to doing and back again
Compelling deep connection with spirit
Big heart
Gestalt, big picture thinker
Direct understanding derived through personal experience

Being Prolific:
Always have the next step ready to go before stopping
Use idle time to think through ideas
Keep the materials organized, separated by type, easily accessible
Prepare the leftovers as you go
Having enough materials on hand for alternative options
Constant desire to create something new
Great outlet for compulsive behavior

Being in Relationship:
A constant search for the balance of together and alone
Prioritize its importance and give it its due
Eating meals together, getting up and going to bed at the same time
When feeling criticized step back to understand what is behind the statement
Instead of over reacting, stop, feel, find a reaction that is soft, positive and personal
When the reasons are not clear for an action, stop and ask why
Never make assumptions
Express needs, concerns, feelings openly
Step away as needed
Support the other person’s effort to be independent and responsible in other relationships
Maintain a sense of humor

Forms of Anxiety:
Fear of making a mistake
Fear of not knowing enough
Rejection
Criticism
Not feeling good enough
Negative and faulty beliefs about self
Lack of trust
What is unknown or not understood

Mothering:
Self-care enables care of others
Untold life rewards
The truest meaning of instinct
Contributes to life purpose

Basics:
Quality sleep is the backbone
Overcoming food likes, obsessions, cravings is a lifelong challenge
Aging gracefully requires a real commitment to keeping physically active
See who is in the mirror
The stillness of meditation shows the way
Anything can be a spiritual practice
Change is the only constant
Quality over quantity
Identifying and feeling emotions allows for flow
Ask questions and apply critical thinking

Life Goals:
Die with awareness
Give up judgement
Combat prejudice, promote diversity, advocate social justice
Do things that bring happiness
Listen carefully and speak from the heart

Moving Through Loss: A Wise Woman Ritual circa 2000

A Letter to the Most Illustrious the Contessina Allagia degli Aldobrandeschi, written Christmas Eve, Anno Domini 1513

I salute you. I am your friend, and my love for you goes deep. There is nothing I can give you which you have not. But there is much, very much, that, while I cannot give it, you can take. No heaven can come to us unless our hearts find rest in it today. Take heaven! No peace lies in the future which is not hidden in this present little instant.

Take peace! The gloom of the world is but a shadow. Behind it, yet within our reach, is joy. There is radiance and glory in darkness, could we but see. And to see, we have only to look. I beseech you to look!

Life is so generous a giver. But we, judging its gifts by their covering, cast them away as ugly or heavy or hard. Remove the covering, and you will find beneath it a living splendor, woven of love by wisdom, with power. Welcome it, grasp it, and you touch the angel’s hand that brings it to you. Everything we call a trial, a sorrow or a duty, believe me, that angel’s hand is there. The gift is there and the wonder of an overshadowing presence. Your joys, too, be not content with them as joys. They, too, conceal diviner gifts.

Life is so full of meaning and purpose, so full of beauty beneath its covering, that you will find earth but cloaks your heaven. Courage then to claim it; that is all! But courage you have, and the knowledge that we are pilgrims together, wending through unknown country home.

And so, at this time, I greet you, not quite as the world sends greetings, but with profound esteem and with the prayer that for you, now and forever, the day breaks and shadows flee away.

Fra Giovanni Giocondo

The Thousand Zippers

The thousand zippers,
One for each time
You were told to “zip it”.
A thousand times
When all you were looking for
Was an answer,
A response,
Someone to notice
That you were alive.

Your size
Made you hard to miss.
But even harder to reach.
Your hands,
Big as the basketball
You spent hours with
On the abandoned playground,
Had a gentle touch
That your grandmother
Knew well.
You carried her
From her bed
On the second floor
Down to her chair
By the window
Every morning,
Then back up the stairs
Every night.
No one ever saw
How you brushed out her hair,
Braiding it
When she was young
And beautiful.
No one knew
How much you cried
When she passed.

All that remains
Is this shell
Of who you appeared to be
But really weren’t.

Laura McGinnis
Pittsburgh, PA
May, 2019

Forty Years and Counting

Today is the opening for Fiberarts International. It’s pretty special. The best and the brightest innovation in a traditionally warm and fuzzy medium.

Meeting the artists and the guild organizers yesterday, I am awed by this organization’s influence and support of my personally arduous and circuitous path in an ever changing definition of the fiber medium and the fiber artist.

Craftivism

craft + activism = craftivism. Maker participation that uses the creative process making a stronger more compassionate voice, strengthening personal activism, connecting beyond the self, and making items that facilitate political thought and action.

My age old question on the hierarchy of art and craft rears its ugly head: studio art vs fiber art vs craftivism vs fine art vs contemporary craft when I listen to JULIA BRYAN-WILSON discuss her conclusions from her 2017 book: Fray:Art and Textile Politics.

I totally identified with her portrayal of the 70’s Women’s Sewing Circle and Terrorist Society, owning one of the original tee-shirts. I was completely aligned with her fine portrayal of relevant contemporary artists producing thought provoking textiles like Willam Pope, Cecilia Vicuña, Margarita Cabrera, and Harmony Hammond. Her information about the inherently progressive nature of the small hand-sewn tapestries depicting Pinochet’s torture, arpilleras (tapestries) and the NAMES Project AIDS Memorial Quilt were evidence of handcrafted textiles recruited to satisfy ambivalent ends. She also proved that the malleability of fiber means that textiles can be activated for many ideological debates about feminized labor, protest cultures, and queer identities.

But, please, when you articulate all of that so clearly, give the artists the credit they deserve. They are artists escaping the assertions of high or low, alternative or mainstream, professional and amateur, success or fail: They are the artists offering crucial insight into how textiles inhabit the broad space we call art.