Renewed Vision for Walking in Love

When my second child was born I experienced a postpartum depression. It is only after I came out of the depression that I noticed just what had happened. The Walking in Love Installation was the creative child of many people. Dozens. But in fact it was a child that came to me at it's inception. This creative child came to me and asked if I would nurture it.
The magnitude, at least for me personally, of this project was beyond what I could have expected to foster so rapidly. I suspect larger forces at work. I have carefully kept many of my own personal opinions of this work tucked away. In truth I have felt myself to be a servant to something larger that has been at work all along. Once the Walking In Love Installation went to the 2011 Sacred Threads show in Herndon, Virginia, and then came home again I felt a little bereft. I was also exhausted and needed to attend to the six months of work that my ranch demanded when I committed myself to bring Walking In Love to life. I have said on this blog that there are other venues interested in this project. It is true. What has not been true is my own ability to step forward to gestate another creative child. Not right away.
But now, after five months,  I begin to wake once again. To recover. To find the deepest meaning behind the origin of this project from the very start. My wonderful friend, Neil Harvey, has said that he sees the softest, sweetest, deepest and truest meaning of this project to be found in the way in which artists are invited to participate. To work on a piece of art while holding a feeling of love is at once quite simplistic and at the same time the hardest demand. It is so deep that the effects have surprised us. I've found that holding to an intention of love while creating becomes something radically transformative. I felt it and many who were part of creating this work of art felt it too. Those who walked through the finished piece felt it and they knew none of us. How we bring ourselves to our lives, to our art, is felt. It matters.
My ongoing work will be to help to teach people to create from this place of love. I have learned many different lessons these past years and in this project. While I am by no means perfect in my ability, I desire to help others into their deepest creative heart, to bring into their art and lives the way to work from love, to create from love. The Walking In Love project invites you to enter the creating of your art this way. If you wish to learn more, stayed tuned.

Where is Walking In Love?

Physically speaking, the Walking In Love Installation sits in the middle of my studio classroom at Quail Meadows! Metaphorically speaking it is in a waiting period. There have been options for other venues but I have felt this deep need to rest.

The rest I speak of is an internal place. Outwardly I am full swing into the harvest of tomato and other veggie of the garden, peach, mint, dill, not yet with apples, elderberry and more. I am filling my woodshed with firewood my son, a friend and myself harvested from the woods at my home. Wonderful work and the kind of work which allows me to contemplate.

When I allow my thoughts to rest on the Walking In Love Installation and what came out of the beautiful venue of Sacred Threads a few key things come to me.

The method of expressing Love through three dimensional art works powerfully.

Love transforms people.
      
Transformation shows itself in many ways.

I will continue to grow Walking In Love (and it will no doubt continue to grow me too!).

The Installation was successful because many people dedicated themselves to seeing the vision fulfilled.

I welcome anyone who feels they want to work on the fuller vision, the next installation.  An artist rendering will be available soon.

Many people have been a part of this installation and have seen it. I am interested in your stories. How you have been affected. Changes to your life as a result of wither working on this or walking through the art. Can you say anything about how these changes have continued in your life and in what ways? Please use the comment tab to write to me. I look forward to hearing from you.

With much love to all of you!
Lisa Brey

Life Wants Love to Flourish

Life 

wants 

Love 

to 

Flourish

Walking In Love Spiral Comments

I set a book out at the outside edge of the spiral for viewers to write of their experiences. The tiny bits I looked into this book along the way brought tears of gratitude to me. Here I share some of them with all of you.

"As with love, the installation is all embracing. Thank you for bringing it to Sacred Threads." Carol Nicholas

"This just filled me...full of love and awe." Mary Bartrop

"It brought me to tears, some grief form my 102 year old Aunt's recent passing. Thank you- it is beautiful."

"The feeling is amazing. The concept is beyond words. Feels like a big hug."

"Very impressive, I'm 14 but this is truly amazing."

"A beautiful journey."

"When texture and space come together fabric has a new life and so do we."

"What a unique and beautiful take on a meditation labyrinth. Wonderful energy." Jen Tailman

"Thrills of JOY and anointing of peace."

"This is a thrilling exhibit- all glorious and different. Thanks to the sponsors for allowing this exhibit to be made public." Claudia Patil,  Reston, Virginia

"When I need some moments for peace and quiet, I'll close my eyes and remember the experience of walking through you serene memorial." Linda Cooper, Burke, Virginia

"Jaw dropping, spectacular, WOW" Andrew Cooper

"VERY CREATIVE! I loved it." Jay Luns, Culpeper, Virginia

"This is one of my favorite works. Thank you for bringing it here. The spiral arrangement, similar to a labyrinth, has special meaning to me as I contemplate the death of my own mother. GOIng in one side and coming out the other side of loss." Janet Marney "The memory goes deeper each time. I need to make panel for this."

"One of the most beautiful man made creations I've ever seen. Simply sensational." Soheil R.

"Spectacular and very comforting." Karen B.

"You must walk through and experience this. it's so moving and magical."

"I am moved at the renewed awareness of how we, as spirits and beings of light, are all the same AND wonderously unique simultaneously. Thank you for the experience." Lauren

"Thank you for the delightful inspiration in the panel :Love is a verb." I will use this inspiration to make a quilt with photos of grandchildre and family members." Kathy B.

This is but a taste of the many heartfelt thought viewers chose to share after their experience. Thank you to all who took time to write. It means so much to hear how the White Room of the Walking in Love Spiral affected you.

Diane Mercier, Walking In Love Artist

I met Diane a dozen years ago in a group that gathered from around Trinity County to spin. We met randomly every few months for many years until our dear Marne Wilkins passed away. I think her passing took the stuffing out of us. Such a life force leaving is a giant hiccup. Marne flew airplanes during World War Two and taught pilots how to fly. She wrote books including one on natural dye materials. I could go on and on. I know that Marne brought Diane and I together and I am grateful for that. We did lose contact for a few years but running in to Diane at the yarn shop in Weaverville while there was time to make a panel was a terrific serendipity. Diane is a seriously talented weaver. She has explored many fibers. One year at the Fiber Arts show at the Highland Gallery Diane had an exhibit showing scarves spun in different fibers including american buffalo. Fascinating. When Diane agreed to make a panel I had no doubt it would be something special. I wish I had photos of Diane and her panel but not yet. Diane says:

Fibonacci numbers are a series of numbers in which each number is the sum of the two preceding numbers.  They can be found in many things in nature, such as:  branching in trees, arrangement of leaves on a stem, an uncurling fern, pine cones or the spiral on a sea shell.  

My panel is handwoven of bamboo and silk yarn and the pattern, done in hand controlled leno lace, represents the Fibonacci number sequence.  It is in the interconnecting threads of our lives that we find meaning and love.  The continuous threads move in and out, over and under other threads...other people, other creatures, other living beings, other parts of the whole cloth that is our world, our universe.

For me, weaving this panel for “Walking in Love” is a celebration of life and love.

Diane

Striking the Walking in Love Spiral at Sacred Threads

I have the utmost admiration and love for the wonderful organizers of the Sacred Threads show. Lisa Ellis and Christine Adams and their committee (darling Vivian, Annabelle, Carol, Bunny, Barbara, and oh dear my memory loses the rest but I SEE your faces) bring respect, reverence, love and joy to the efficiency and organization that both hung and struck this magnificent display of fine art. You gals are awesome. The show in the words of a generation: Epic.

Tear down has brought me a sadness in the last two shows. But not this time knowing that the show will go on. Instead I rolled up my sleeves and Travis and I powered through the tear down. We were assisted in key moments by Patrick, the facilities manager, whom I saw hovering on the edges respectfully but still wondering if I could help Travis handle the steel beams and the plywood ceilings. Travis assured him I am solid. I am, but I am still limited in my physique so I am grateful that Patrick lent his muscles for a few moments saving me from who knows what.

There are always a few moments before the strike when I take myself through the spiral walking in love once more. Feeling the hearts of those who created the panels and savoring the peace inside, taking a few more photos as this will not be the same ever again. Travis, a professional photographer, will share some of his photos with the blog once he is back from his long journey driving across the country. This quiet is then followed by the relentless pacing as panels are removed, spiral taken down bolt by bolt by screw by turnbuckle by ladders by lighting retrieved and sweat and a few bumps on the head and more sweat and the heat and cicada serenade outside in the trailer for the repacking of precious cargo carefully rolled and wrapped to protect form the dirt of the road and this run on sentence could tell you of the pacing as we do not stop until it is finished. My plane created the deadline and I was grateful to have a ride to the airport from Annabelle with a little time to spare leaving Travis in the broiling heat of the parking lot strapping the steel beams to the top of the trailer, a last event before he hit the road, happy to be on his away in solitude once again.

I love the way a show transforms a space, the definition of installation, the magic this dance of construction created for all of those who would come to experience art. For the White Room of the Walking in Love Spiral to have found a place nestled in the middle of so many generously open and exquisite art pieces was a rare gift. Thank you Sacred Threads and all the artists and sponsors who who made it happen.

Sacred Threads Sponsors: eQuilter.com , Giving Back Technology, LLC , Jinny Beyer Studio and Emma Soderquist

Bridget Carson, Walking In Love Artist

Bridget Carson

Friends, family or lovers, we all share protection, warmth and affection within the encircling embrace of love.

Bridget was the first person I ran in to after the Highland Gallery confirmed their desire to see an installation built. I went to the grocery store and there she was in the baking aisle. There I was in the baking aisle. What can I say?

We spoke about the notion of a 1 foot by eight foot panel all in white. I sketched it in my notebook and showed her the first rough concept. Bridget stroked her chin thoughtfully and said she was intrigued. She is a trained fine artist. I wish it was possible to capture in a photo the embrace she rendered in thread. From one side a man, from the other, a woman. When the Hyampom School children went through the installation they were particularly taken with this panel. A unique contribution. This is one of those panels you simply must see in person to appreciate the delicacy.

Walking in Love on the Fourth of July

The buzz of cicadas and the heat create a trance. Sitting out on the lawn outside Arlington National Cemetery with ten thousand others waiting for 4th of July fireworks to begin over the Washington Monument is surreal. Children arrive by the bus load, making their way down in single file lines to the lawn in the front of the slope gently moving towards the Potomac. Groups of friends spread picnic blankets celebrating the day with salads, cupcakes and laughter. Families meet other families and play cards waiting for the late afternoon heat to give way to nightfall. A few drops of rain begin to fall and I wonder if the deluge proceeded by huge winds which left downed tree limbs all over the Mall the day before will happen again as I wait for the fireworks to begin. The Lincoln Memorial rises out the the treetops with Washington right on top. I am not exactly in a direct line of sight down the Mall so the Capitol building is slightly to the right. It is an amazing sight, the grandeur of the Capitol of the Unites States. I heard the voices of many languages in my wanderings around the heart of DC. It touches me that others from far away come here and join us in the enjoyment of art, music, culture, parades, pomp and circumstance. I noticed here and there the red and yellow robes of the Tibetan monks beginning to appear in preparation for the Dalai Lama to arrive. They begin a many day gathering (Kalachakra) for world peace. Meanwhile helicopters circle low overhead every fifteen minutes as we wait to see the moment when the day yields to dusk and the monuments are illuminated. Here and there along the tree line off in the far distant city and suburbs the blooms of firework flowers begin to erupt. At one point the entire tree line supports the colorful display of our way of acknowledging this important date.

My day was a full immersion into the life at the heart of this city. I heard the Air Force Band rehearsing The Battle Hymn of the Republic with Jo Dee Messina for the evenings performance at the base of the Washington obelisk. A multicultural festival filled much of the mall. Sponsored by the Smithsonian, I was able to wander a 'village' recreated to take me to the country of Columbia and savor the richness of art, music and food. Taking a few steps I moved to Rhythm and Blues and a few steps more into a journey to Africa. What joy! Sobering reminders at the Holocaust Museum and lessons on looking for propaganda. I have to admit to a few odd thoughts of my own as I studied these lessons and wondered how or if Love could be spread in so widespread a manner as to 'take over' our lives.

One of my favorite things encountered after hearing a stirring reenactment of Thomas Jefferson and companions speaking the words from our Declaration of Independence on the steps of the National Archives was the tunnel of light connecting the east and west galleries of the National Museum. For me it is remembering. I wrote a message of love to the soldiers serving overseas adding my few words to the many of all who had walked through the security search in order to find a place to picnic while waiting to see the fireworks from the vantage point of the base of the Washington Monument.

When darkness fell and blooms finally appeared over the Obelisk I was reminded of a gigantic sparkler going off over and over in many  colors, shapes and forms. Hearts, smiley faces, golden and white glow held suspended by a magical technology I do not understand. Radiating again and again ephemeral light. Light that many are drawn to see, experience, celebrate and delight in. Light that causes friends, families, lovers and troops high up in the tower behind me to stop everything else in their lives in order to give full attention. Ahhhh.

What about love?

After the long push to get the Walking in Love Installation to the Sacred Threads show I am taking a break. I suspect New York City can be considered a break. Hmmm. So much of everything that worries and cares melts away absorbed by unceasing inundation of sight, sound, motion. I think the best smells in the world exist here wafting out of the small cafes tucked underneath apartments stacked on top of each other. Walk a few more steps and the worst smells in the world are sure to be encountered before too long. People sitting on their front stoops escaping the heat of the apartments late in the day, a dinner enjoyed with friends walking by, life exists in such varied forms in this world, from wilderness to the exact opposite. Somewhere in the midst of all this exploration from one village to the next a young woman, tall and slender, walked by. Her face I no longer remember, except the large dark sunglasses. A busy intersection, people racing along following the 'walk now' symbols and jay walking wildly in all directions. I stood for a moment deciding which way to go, happily stopped in my tracks by her stark white tee shirt with jet black writing. A simple font style, nothing elaborate. No other imagery. Fluidly walking by, a motion absorbed into the crowds and disappearing before I could even fully register the details of this person...left with the message of her clothing...so perfectly appropriate reminder...simple words to comtemplate...what meaning to make of this idea:
Love Is My Religion

Joann Hereford,Walking In Love Artist

Joann Hereford

Panel Name:  Love Allows…

I started sewing quilt tops six years ago for my aunt’s church fundraising group in Texas.  I began making raffle and auction quilts for the Hawkins Bar Volunteer Department four years ago after I joined the Log Cabin Quilt Guild in Hayfork.

Up to this panel my quilt tops and quilts have been utilitarian – meant to be used as a warm bedcovering.  Some have been original designs, others based on patterns right out of magazines and books.

I think love is comfort, love is freedom, love is joy and happiness and love is fun.  When walking in love I’d be on a path – real or imagined.  The center block is a 1930’s block called “Paths to Happiness.”  Below it is “Woodland Path” and at the top is “Starry Path.”  If you love and are loved, love allows you to follow or make paths…down to earth paths as well as paths to the stars or paths in any old direction.

…and the butterflies???…they’re just fun.


Joann is just plain fun too. And talk about 'get 'er done', that's Joann! Enthusiastic, straightforward, creativity in abundance. Gotta love her!

Travis Boland, Walking in Love Artist

"He's a knight in shining armor," Fran said of Travis when I saw her into the airport to leave DC and Travis circled around in his truck. I have said he is an angel. Others on site while we built the installation commented on how kind he is. Without being asked he went around the entire exhibit hall and made sure the rods set up to support all of the art pieces for the Sacred Threads were properly secured. He said soothing words to me on more than one occasion during the build. My patience was worn thin by the time change and my own concern about how it would go. Travis often reminded me of the mission statement, "a joyful process". He operates in a humble manner with speed, efficiency, brilliant competence, humor and a calm and cheerful demeanor. Travis drove the trailer full of the Walking in Love spiral across the country while being chased by water spouts, lightening and heavy rain, stopping only to sleep in his truck when he was too tired to  continue. He arrived in the wee hours of the morning and unhitched the trailer, came to our hotel, took a shower, ate some food and then hopped in to the truck again to take Fran and I to begin to set up the show. This after sleeping at a rest stop in Maryland when weather prevented him from making it all the way to DC as hoped. Then after the build was completed he took the time to carefully appreciate all of the quilt art work, taking his artistic ability with a camera and capturing imagery honoring all of the artists. He really is one of the genuine "Nice Guys" in this world. Travis is the best.

My own walk in love

The past months have been a bullet train. Zooming from idea to an installation show traveling across the country has me marveling at the way life continues to surprise  and change everything. Making fabric panels holding the concept/feeling of love is an ongoing invitation and exercise to me. I made another panel yesterday. The last one before the show travels to Sacred Threads. So good to place myself in the creative ways of fabric. To allow the rest that comes when I dive in to deep create. Subtle joy while following the next right step in Process Quilting . I am, it turns out, a Modern Quilt Guild kind of gal. Who knew that this is a phenomenon occurring in the next generation of women taking up quilting. I have thought I am a bit of a strange quilter. But no. We are everywhere! I teach process quilting. The last two days I have had the great pleasure of using this technique to lead a workshop in making a panel in a day. Huh? Two days for a panel in a day? Well, the total number of hours was one day. I had to take care of some extreme car troubles that interrupted my time to do the workshop in one day. I mean, living out in the wilderness where there is no cell service and little traffic is not the place to let car troubles go neglected. I had my car die five miles from my home. That means get out of the car and hitchhike. There is no other way. Period.

When friends call me to ask how I am doing I can feel to my core the richness of a new panel and the ways in which taking care of everyday troubles are all becoming the place I choose to walk in love. Human dramas erupt around the installation. Invitation to walk in love. Not so simple things either. The very great temptation to let my own reactivity fly out of control. But somehow I find the way to respond rather than react, and I credit the exercise of making a panel with assisting me to respond in love.

The Walking in Love Spiral is alive. It is constantly changing. This third showing does not include Katie's panel. It is not the same without it and I did miss it while hanging the show. But I felt good about why it did not travel to Herndon, Virginia and the Sacred threads show. The panel had a different sacred mission. The spark of the idea to retire Katie's panel from the show and offer it to my sister-in-law Debbie came to me when my dad and I traveled together to visit my brother Phil. I wrote about Katie's panel in one of the first blogs. Her sudden death at age 26 propelled me even further in to this project. Katie was an extremely gifted artist and I felt her nudging when I made the panel to honor her life. The first months after losing a daughter is such a tender time, as if there is ever a time when it is not tender to lose a child. I brought the panel to Debbie. Her tears, the tenderness of placing the panel around her shoulders...I can no longer say that this is a simple art installation. It is dynamic. Alive. Growing with three new artists giving me panels to take to Sacred Threads even as one panel leaves. The show is never the same twice. No day in life is ever the same twice either. The invitation always exist to choose how I bring myself to this day. To any and every thing that arises in this day. Truly not always easy to come from the place of love, nor is this done perfectly. But I learn how to recognize the feeling of love in myself. Simply put, love is where rigidity is softened. Where grace lets me say a kind word instead of a sharp retort. I am not perfect in this. No way. But this walking in love installation has become a very interesting teacher. Who knew? I did not when I started out and followed the flash to make this happen. But I am grateful that life is anything but dull and we are a long way from love growing cold.

Corky LeTellier, Walking In Love Artist

Corky LeTellier

Statement:    I have been working in fabric since taking a Parks and Recreation beginning

quilting class in San Francisco in order to learn how to make a baby quilt for my firstborn.

After many years of being a traditional quilter, I have started branching out into embellishment

and original design and it has taken hold of me.  This was an opportunity to celebrate the vast

wonderment of Trinity County in a new way and I chose to portray the nature all around us.

We live in a beautiful place and need to be grateful each and every day for the mountains,

the lakes, the trees.   I feel so very blessed - walking in love to me is being outside.

Corky was one of the first people to give me an enthusiastic "yes!" when I asked her to make a panel for the installation. I saw her in Weaverville at a community concert given mid december 2010. Truthfully, her yes was the encouragement I needed to know this project would actually turn from a dream to reality. Thank you Corky! I have seen her quilting work every year at the Trinity County Fair. Last year she entered a marvelous and large dragon of her own design. I have felt Corky to be a kindred spirit in the realm of art quilting. It is a great pleasure to have her panel hang in the Walking in Love installation.

Feedback for the Walking In Love Installation

" I felt filled up with love."

"I want to make a panel!"

"The porcelain piece is an interesting addition. I had to hear how it sounds so I used my program to move it!"

"I came out of the walk a better person than when I entered it."

"Love the copper work."

"Great lighting!"

Over and over again visitors to the installation found me and raved over their experience in the spiral and all the people who made this happen. They were touched, amazed, in awe. Awe was a frequently used word. One woman decided that Awe is the word form of the fullness of love, something she experienced as she stood in the center of the spiral! I have to say it is gratifying when complete strangers to this work and anyone involved are profoundly moved. It validates the premise that art made while holding the feeling of love has the ability to impact the lives of those who experience it. It also validates the premise that my own personal experiences that led to this work are but one way in which love can be understood. Others who did not have my experience added their own deeply held and personal understanding and it all worked together.

The Sacred Threads show is arranged in general categories: spirituality, joy, inspiration, peace/brotherhood, grief and healing. Our installation was placed in between grief and joy. I overheard one woman say that to walk through the quilts depicting grief and then wander into the white room was relief. In my own personal life I know that the death of my mother, a woman who was my best friend, mentor, heroine, might have been intolerable had it not been balanced by the sure feeling of her transformation into that peaceful  energetically riveting crystalline light. I have not been a person who sought visions. It took me some time to have the courage to share this experience with others. At this particular show the people who found me wanted to know more. There is a hunger I think we experience as humans to understand something about what comes after this physical existence. I am by no means an expert on this. But I do know that when each of us has the courage to share those encounters with the mystical aspects of life we enrich everyone. Our culture, even the culture of our most sacred religious institutions, often disallow or downplay the more intangible aspects of touching the spiritual. I have found that the head knowledge aspect of learning with regard to spirituality is quite common. And yet we are so much more than only our brains. There are other cultures which view the heart as the seat of the 'brain'. I feel that the intangible is known intuitively through the heart, not the head.

The spiral work will grow. Several people asked how they can get involved. Lisa Ellis and Christine Adams set up a station outside the exhibition hall where guests were invited to write their prayers, hopes, dreams onto strips of white silk which were then tied to a potted palm tree. Lisa had the idea that these white strips could be a panel, the Sacred Threads panel. I say a big "YES!" to this. How wonderful to take these heartfelt thoughts/prayers/feelings and add them to the ever expanding Walking In Love Spiral.

Rachel Rickard, Walking in Love Artist

When Rachel and Jacob moved to Hyampom last summer with their baby Alora we met outside the post office. The post office is the one place where everyone in town is bound to come sooner or later since we have no mail delivery to homes. It wasn't long before Rachel and my daughter Sydney became friends. Not too much later they both made their first quilt projects, panels for the Walking in Love Installation.

Rachel is gentle, deep, humorous and a homesteader in the making. She takes on many different aspects of gardening, preserving foods and holistic health. Their home is filled with music and friends.

Rachel Rickard

This is my first fiber arts experience! My vision for this project was to capture the lightness and beauty of love. My quest led me to creating a 3 part mixed art piece. My inspiration, being a mother to my baby daughter Alora, who radiates pure love and joy from every fiber of her being! This project opened me up to the depths of a mothers love, as a mother but also as a child of the miraculously bountiful earth!" 

News from the Artist Reception for Sacred Threads June 25, 2011

Walking in Love is but one part of the entire show of Sacred Threads, an exhibition hall full of the amazing vitality that makes up our shared human experience all depicted through fiber. Celebrating our frailties, our strengths and joy, the quilts here radiate astonishing stories. Vikki Pignatelli founded this show and trusted it to the care of Lisa Ellis and Christine Adams and their faithful and talented committee who have successfully opened the first showing in Herdon, Virginia. How wonderful to Meet Vikki and hear first hand why she created this venue. A quilter who was accustomed to her work being judged, nevertheless Vikki was stung when a judge commented unfavorably on a quilt which was more spiritual in its nature. Vikki took something that did not work and turned it into a show that offers viewers a breadth and depth of the human condition that I have never seen anywhere else. Vikki and her husband Denny came out to  Herdon to pass the baton of Sacred Threads into the good hands of others who also care about showing the world art infused with the deepest feelings of life in this body.

The women I met, the stories they have to tell, encourage me to keep expressing all that I might otherwise bottle up inside. The Walking In Love Installation sits in the center of this jewel of a show. It was quite satisfying to hear complete strangers respond to the power of the art that was made holding the feeling of love. Two women who met in the center of the spiral spoke of how they were so surprisingly affected that they committed to speak with each other in a few months to talk about how Walking in Love has impacted their own fiber art pieces and how they create.

One lesson I came away with: if you have any desire to express yourself, do it. Peg, one of the artists, told me that she takes more risks now in her life. The risk to expose who you are and what you have experienced enriches everyone. What you have to share is important to us all. No quilt is too small, no emotion too trivial. However, I will tell you that when you dare to touch on, even dive deeply into, those topics which "polite and dignified" society (whatever that is) keep as taboo then you help all of us open up our hearts to a fuller and richer life. I met women who have been dealt so many difficult things in life. Betrayal, cancer, the death of multiple children, a childhood filled with the aftermath of a parent who suffered atrocities, addictions and more. These difficulties were transformed into stunningly surprising fiber art. The artists found healing for themselves while gifting the rest of us with brilliant fiber art to contemplate.

Themes  of joy celebrating natural beauty, the way light illuminates stained glass in a cathedral, ephemeral beauty of a time when beloved children walked wooded paths, women's retreats to replenish the wells. These quilts remind me to look around and take stock of all that is good and true and beautiful. Life is for living and nothing is to be pushed aside or hidden away. Great invigoration exists when we open up to acceptance that it is all good and worth sharing. Sharing it, whatever it is,  makes life better.

I learned all of this over the course of a three hour reception in which artists walked around visiting with each other and a delicious Italian dinner party afterwards. Friendships were forged, hearts shared, encouragement found. 

Faye McGough, Walking in Love Artist

I have known Faye through our local quilters guild, the Log Cabin Quilters, for many years now. Faye is an extremely productive quilter as well as a soap maker and the creator of many assorted crafts. I suppose her years of raising seven children and working full time as a nurse have something to do with her ability to multitask and get things done! I sure hope the lucky relatives who receive her quilts are grateful for her design and color sense. Her quilts are treasures as is her company. Faye is always ready to laugh at the absurdities in life. 

"When I hear the word love, I immediately think "family", hence the funky family tree.  It holds my 7 living children, 21 grandchildren, and 3 great-grands.  At the foot of our tree you will find 2 children from heaven.  Look up and down the trunk and you will see my message."

Faye McGough aka grammy

Working in a one foot by eight foot format can create some design challenges.  When viewed from a distance her family tree is reminiscent of a giant sequoia or a redwood and not at all funky. 

Frances Sherman, human or angel?

When Frannie told me she would be my adopted mother five years ago and I accepted neither one of us knew the roads we would travel together. Never did I guess we would share a bunk bed in Fortuna, California at Dixie McBride's Quilter's Escape. I had the top bunk. This is when Fran learned that I like to carry little rocks in my pockets. Ummm...because one rolled out of my pocket and fell onto her in the bunk down below. NO harm....just surprise.

I had known Fran for many years before she decided to adopt me so I guess we both had some inkling that we cared for one another. Yet most people know that once you commit to a decision things happen. We have walked each other through many things in the last five years. Illness, personal difficulties, all the dramas that most human lives have. There have been joyful laughter filled times playing canasta crammed in the tiny cabin we share with our other friends when we travel as a pack to escape everyday life and quilt with abandon.

When I offered an art quilt retreat series at my place Frannie amazed everyone in her joyful leap from meticulous traditional quilter into full bloom as the fine artist she is. What I experienced was her unwavering support of me in my own metamorphosis as a teacher. In fact Fran has been the most steadfast mother anyone could ever want.

These last few days as we waited expectantly for Travis to arrive with our trailer in his cross country journey, as we have run into technical difficulties with our copper room build, Fran has never faultered in her generosity, calm, humor and ability to let my stressed terseness roll off her back. Isn't it true that a mother is usually the one that children go to with their meltdowns? It is a measure of the grace with which Fran lives life that she loves deeply, hugely, solidly from the depths and forgets the less than perfect. I am blessed to have a mother that I can talk to in less than perfect and sometimes brusque ways and she loves with warmth anyway.

You would laugh to see Fran and I butt heads. I mean this quite literally. I have heard it said that what bothers me most about another is often a mirror back in to myself. When Fran and I put our foreheads against one another and push it is truly amusing. My goats do this. I suspect it has to do with establishing dominance. Something about testing who is the alpha. You would never know Fran is in her 8th decade of life when we butt heads. I have to tell you that I must push pretty darn hard in order to take the lead form this competent leader among women. Anyone witnessing this from the outside might think our process to be a little harsh. But we both know that this is the surface, not the deep down depths of our love for one another. For the two of us walking in love can be and often is walking in friction. Friction creates smoothness out of roughness just as iron sharpens iron.

There were many issues to be addressed this last day of our build for the Sacred Threads show and Fran, who came to Washington DC to be love, support and a person who climbed a ladder to hold up the plywood ceiling, was everything I could hope for and more in a mother. Thank you Frannie. I love you.

Inside the hall we begin to make room to Walk in Love

Ceiling

Our plan did not go forward quite as rapidly as we had hoped. We allowed three days to build and hang the show. It became apparent on the morning of day three that this would not be real. John and I had a very good conversation about walking in love instead of stressing in love which we both had indulged in a little bit. We reminded ourselves that this project was about process and how we worked together was very important. Now please understand that everyone on board is quite adept at creating finished product. There was no doubt this would occur. But we also knew that we were creating a prototype. Wikipedia dictionary defines prototype as follows: A first or preliminary model of something, esp. a machine, from which other forms are developed or copied. Of course! This explains why there were things we did not anticipate. Like the fact that the ceiling of the hall was nine feet 6 inches and we needed more space than that. Oops. We were not able to install the lighting in this first build. No room. I can't say that I was happy to accept that we would tear down the installation and then need to rebuild it again to finish the work. I don't imagine anyone else involved was too thrilled. But no-one complained. In fact people were good natured about it. "This is a prototype," became a mantra. The structure took four days to build. Many people helped, including those who had come to the artist reception we had scheduled for day 4. A party went on outside the hall! We ate well. Everyone got to witness our build and look at the panels as they awaited hanging on the many tables. I noticed one man moved to tears, to his enormous surprise, simply looking at one panel on a table. Frannie worked all of one day making white curtains to serve as walls. I know that everyone was grateful when Christina showed up one night with a dinner of the most delicious pasta I had tasted. Yum for the garlic! 

Inevitable challenges to Walking In Love

Building the structure for the panels all the way across the country without the many people who helped to make it happen in Hyampom is much slower. Once again a big THANK YOU to all you Trinitarians who made the first full build happen. Some areas of the build continue to have challenging issues and yet Travis keeps his attitude good natured and reminds me to do the same. Frannie lets me know when I am forgetting our mission statement: 


The Walking In Love Installation Organization is dedicated to the collaborative creation and exhibition of art that introduces artists and the public to a creative and joyful process infused with love.


I do believe I was tested about how to be in that place yesterday. The reality of the time shortened by travel delays, building with fewer skilled people than I had hoped to have with us, all of it added up to a difficult day for me personally. I have to say that Travis and Frannie both know how to keep their cool and just keep on. 


And, I simply would not be accurate in describing what happened if I left out the wonderful help from Cindy Stevens who shuttled me around when I needed the few things I forgot to pack and jumped right in taking care of the many little things needing to be done. Thank you to Sohail and Victor who offered their muscles to Travis when we needed them. The Sacred Threads people, Lisa, Barbara, calmly went about constructing their labyrinth of poles and curtains for the art that has arrived from around the country.


Today is for finishing the build and hanging our panels. This promises to be a sumptuous show. 

Play Hard, Work Hard

Can one day expand to be experienced as a week? I think so. Life is rich. A quiet morning soaking in the Mansion on O Street, thoroughly enjoying the soft couch looking out over tree lined O Street, a squirrel visits on a slim limb, snatching a seed blossom and nibbling it. I can't help but think that if this creature can exist in an urban place and find food, live a life, be beautiful, then how dare I worry? A simpler way of saying things is that I am filled with Gratitude for all life offers. To be able to live in Washington DC in a fabulous place for a few days truly fills the well. After writing and taking care of the refinement of the Walking In Love artist statement book that will accompany the exhibit I began to, literally, pace the street waiting for Travis to arrive. Wisdom in the form of Ross who cares for the valet service of the Mansion was nurturing to my mounting anticipation of the work to begin. Ross celebrates 'Walking' to receive his High School diploma twenty years after he left school. A great example to his children, congratulations Ross! I met his friends Jeannie and Steve on their way in to the Mansion to jam with the o street band. Wonderful people. Expectancy fulfilled as Travis turns the corner and finally arrives! Oh boy did he have adventures. Heavy rain in the middle of the country followed him in the form of water spouts, lightening storms and high winds. But he made it safely and so did our installation! Woo hoo!

Travis went straight to the shower and then to feast at the most fabulous brunch at the Mansion you could ever imagine. Rooms of food. One entire room dedicated to desserts. Hundreds of desserts. Cakes, scones, cookies, cheeses, fruits, and even bags of candy (nearly took one of my favorite Sugar Babies) after delicious fresh asparagus, figs, beets, snap peas (my choices) and, just about anything else you could imagine. Omelets made to order, smoked and fresh salmon and on and on. Three rooms. FULL. YUM! Fran and Travis and I ate then prepared to drive to Herndon to begin to set up Walking In Love. No time to waste.

Unloading the trailer in humid heat and drops of rain is the counterpoint to the luxury of the Mansion. We hustled to complete the initial structure build so we would be out of the way today when the rest of the crew shows up to create the surrounding show. The wonderful show organizers, Lisa Ellis, Christine Adams and Barbara Hollinger, met us, gave us the tour and then got out of our way. I had a few minutes of stressful fidgets before Travis and Fran set me straight. Hey! This is fun! Travis and the trailer survived thousands of miles of travel and here we are, creating the Walking In Love spiral for the east coast! Cool! actually, drippy sweaty hot, but good work.

Back to the Mansion and dinner. Travis and I blew off steam by walking to the Mall and the obelisk also known as the Washington Memorial. What a thrill it is to be there at night. Fully lit, it sits on a knoll looking one direction to the Lincoln Memorial and another to the Capitol. Truly a magnificent place. We cruised by the White House, dark for the night, before power walking back to O Street and deep sleep. Today we begin our ceiling and spiral installation. Serious rain outside.

Notes from the Road

My sister Jennifer and her two boys drove me from the wilds of the North State (does the rest of California know that those of us living past Mendocino have a different name for our state?) to the airport in San Francisco. Jen and her family live nearby so I had a day with them and was also able to visit my son who lives in Santo Cruz. The delight of the journey begins.

I flew out of the new terminal two at SFO. It is a step in to a new age. Gorgeous, technologically driven and yet the priceless art SFO is famous for was present in an extensive collection of gorgeously crafted silver from many eras. I flew Virgin America. From the moment I stepped in to the plane softly lit with purple and pink I felt transported to some magical place. Huh? Air travel with some glamour? Yes. This was a different ride. It is quite wonderful to have a screen in front of me with menu selections that I can enter at any time and have brought to me. As many times as I wish. No waiting for the cart to travel down the aisle.  This airline is doing many things in a different way. I enjoyed traveling with them.

Washington DC. A must visit place. As americans we travel all over the earth. I hope those who love to travel also come here. This city is simply magnificent. I have been gifted to a stay at an unbelievably wonderful and stunningly unique place near Dupont Circle. It is called The Mansion on O Street. Many Thanks to Ted Spero and H for your generosity. You have truly created a one of a kind experience. My life is greatly enriched because of you. To Karen for offering this connection: I love you!

My dear adopted mother Frannie has traveled here with me. We have been waiting for Travis to arrive with the show. He is currently 30 miles away from us. A few days behind schedule. But all is safe and good. He has adventures to share from his drive across the country. While waiting for Travis yesterday Fran and I decided to sightsee. We toured the National Galleries, east and west, soaking up, inhaling, feeling so much marvellous art. Highlights include the tunnel of moving lights which connect the two galleries. Whoever thought this installation up was inspired. We walked the moving sidewalk three times and each time found it a thrill. I could not help but bounce myself with a light run back and forth on the sidewalk and leap off the end. Lunch by the waterfall installation came as close to the rapids of the south fork of the Trinity River as I will ever know in an urban environment. I could put my face up close and imagine I was near the steep falls I love to visit every summer, the drops of water popping, the motion rapid and white. Once again I am thrilled by the power of art to create a change in emotions, feelings, sensation. Then of course the visiting Capitoline Venus in the rotunda, oh her lips! How can hard marble appear so soft? It is her first time out of Rome. Gabriel Metsu created an opportunity for my time travel in to another place. Walking through the intimate rooms filled with his quite ordinary and yet sweet everyday life images grabbed from a time so long ago filled me with the sensation of being in another world. Nam June Paik offered a retreat, an opportunity to embrace stillness, reflection. Frannie had a vision while in the tower with this installation of the Walking In Love spiral filling the space. Of course we had to sit and watch the gentle motion of a Calder swirling over all. Huge chunks of metal in graceful air ballet. I am inspired by the visions these artists possess. And then there was the "5 plates of steel and two rods" sculpture standing in exquisite balance below the Calder. I soaked up to full saturation a dizzying array of magnificent art. YUMMY!

A trip across the mall to the National Museum of the American Indian created an interesting balance point to the galleries. The most beautiful circle executed in stone and copper sits at the bottom of the rotunda at the center of this gorgeous building. I sat on the highly polished stone bench leaning up against the rough hewn stone back gazing up at the four directions created within the skylight in the ceiling. Max, a young boy from Tennessee asked me what I was doing. He then quizzed me about why I am in DC. He closed his eyes when I described the Walking In Love spiral and then asked enough questions to fill his imagination with a vision. He smiled with amazement and said he would love to see it. Was he an angel? I do not know. He brought me encouragement. I stood in the center of the circle while children ran around, adoring parents took endless photos of them in their delight. Of all the moving experiences created within this museum I was most enthralled with a wall full of arrowheads mounted in a flowing manner. I can't do it justice with words. It moved, like water, through various sizes, shapes, all arranged as water motion, yet rendered with rough stone crafted from hundreds to thousands of years ago out of many types of rock. Fran and I ate lunch by the 'river' created next to the cafe which serves foods of indiginous people. It was fabulous!

Just when we thought we were too exhausted to go any further we wandered through the Botanical Gardens. I felt the call to float across the lawns, my butterfly wings delighted by the blue globe thistles, orchids, water gardens and green. Frannie refused to wade in the fountain though her dogs were barking furiously. "It's just not dignified,"she told me. I wonder if we could all do with a tiny bit less dignity and a little more fun? She tells me that she stood in the fountain in her dream last night. I am so glad!

The Thrill of it all

Can't help it.
 Fire and metal are a huge draw for me.
 How many photos
of these bits and pieces
can tell
the fascinating story of copper and steel
taking shape
to become a room?
The perfect contrast
to the delicacy
of white on white panels,
is this grimy, sweaty, dirty,
hot and
 potentially dangerous work.
I will admit that
the sharp contrast
between the white work
and the metal work
had me
in a little bit
(correct me if I under exaggerate my response)
of stress
around
how the
'marriage'
would ultimately
come about.
These gracious guys
accepted the need
to clean the metal
once all the fabrication had been completed and before it would come in contact with the white work. 

Participating with, watching, staying out of the way, getting in the way, all of these things happened for me  while the build of the copper room that would house the white on white panels took place. Men, Many men (and a woman or two), with strength and brains, skills and practical know-how made the design John envisioned work. We were not people who have all worked together before, though many of us have overlapped on projects of all sorts in the years we have lived here. I do not know that any barn-raisings have occurred in this community in recent years, but I have seen many of these people build a barbeque pit for the hall. I watched the Petanque court come to life at the same time our show was born. I do not mean to be sexist about who did the work of copper polishing, grinding, welding and construction. It is a simple fact that this was largely the realm of the men. I am not a stranger to this way. I worked as an engineer for a dozen years in a male dominated field before I chose to work from the home to raise my two children. Prototype development was what I loved to do. Here was an amazing chance to play once again. I am so very grateful for these volunteers and how they worked together in very elegant and harmonious ways through snafu and delight until the room was built.  Charley, John, Evan, Tony, Jean-Pierre, Ebbe, Travis, James, Larry, Phil, Dad, Neil, Sydney, Karen, Fran and Susan Thank You from my heart.

Hyampom Community Hall

Our community hall is a special place. In our village, yes some people call us one of the last true villages, the hall serves as the place where everything happens. Weddings, memorial services, art and music festivals, school performances, church, town meetings, dances, yoga and fitness classes, countless potlucks meals and more. Being able to build the Walking In Love installation at the hall of my little community has been sweet. We took over the hall for six days. Others who use the hall graciously shared the space with this project. People from the community came and went, at times joining in with helping out, checking with the progress of the build.

This hall, even if not this exact structure, has been an integral part of the life of this community. In the days before electricity and phone connections the hall was THE place everyone gathered to talk about community events, share a meal and then play music and dance until dawn before returning to the work demanded by homesteading. In this day of e-mail, easy auto travel, television and pandora the hall still offers our small wilderness village all of the things it always has. When the Bee Eaters came to offer their particular form of magic music to us this past January the hall buzzed with life and drew many to share the special event. We ate a potluck meal first, per tradition. As our build progressed different people brought food, tea, music and encouragement.

Packing the Trailer

A gorgeous summer day blooms. Who could know what the weather would do this day? Rain and cold one day then heat the next. Lessons in "it is what it is". A phrase which pops up with increasing frequency in my world. From many different people. In many different situations. Well, what it is today, is a day to pack the trailer for the drive across the country to Sacred Threads. Punch lists, inventory, fix it kits, carefully packed white panels, tools, ladders. I am so very grateful to be able to send everything in one package. I do understand it is one of those 'all the eggs in one basket' situation but Travis Boland is someone who is able to do what he says he will do. One of those people that show up, take care of business, work in a solution oriented way and knowledgeable about how to deal with a wide variety of situations. I am grateful for the way life brought him into the Walking in Love world.

Friends tell me I am brave. Huh. Not feeling that this morning. There is this feeling of excitement standing at one edge of this giant country and preparing to go across to the other edge. And debut an art installation. OK, I can be a bit of a drama queen now and then. But it is a truth that nerves do accompany brave acts. I know about myself that I feel fear and do things anyway. I just want to see how it all turns out. Life is so varied and interesting. To do the same thing over and over again is not my cup of tea. While this is the third time the Walking In Love Installation will be shown, it will not be the same show again. Panels have left. New panels will be hung. Different people will help to set it up.  The feeling of this next show will be affected by the town it is in. It will also carry with it the hearts of people from Trinity County, the good will of so many wonderful people. My dentist told me he is happy to see Trinity County become known for something besides agricultural products, which is a euphemism for the cannabis cultivation which this region is world renowned for.

I get to meet new people and see how lovely life is away from my wilderness home in Trinity County California.

Tony Kendrew, Walking in Love Artist

Friends would stop by and comment, "Oh, so this is what making an art installation looks like." Maybe once a piece is finished in a gallery and the whole is witnessed the details disappear in light of the finished glory. So easy for those seeing the final product to be unaware of all it takes to make some ideas come to life. It is quite humbling for me to find out that so many people will just show up and volunteer their time to an idea. I have learned that I live in a community with extraordinary people. Tony Kendrew was the first one at the hall waiting with the key the morning we were to build. He has been in the midst of many of his own projects. He just recorded a CD to go with a book of poetry he wrote ( have not convinced him to make a poetry panel yet). He was working on a brand new petanque court in the front of our community hall. The grand opening games were the same day as our installation showing. But there was Tony, day after day showing up to offer his help with so much of what happened. Talented, quiet, funny and so generous to many within this small town. Thank you Tony for your steadfast way of showing up until the work was finished. It would not have happened so gracefully without you.

John Ritz Walking In Love Artist

The past few months have flown by. It is hard to remember that in January the Walking In Love installation had yet to be fabricated or shown. Only the idea for a spiral structure existed in my mind. Thank goodness John's name popped in to my head when I was wondering how the spiral could be made. I am so very grateful he decided to tackle not only the first simple spiral we attached to the ceiling of the Highland Gallery, but also decided to design and then build the second round, the copper room to house the white on white panels. It was a very great pleasure to watch John work with his son Evan, a young man my son Eric went to school with when they were children. John and Evan took the lead of engineering the installation structure and created something wonderful.

John Ritz

I've worked with metal for 35 years. As a welder, metal fabricator, blacksmith and sculptor.  I'm also a bass player, and as such it is my role to provide for the other musicians the solid rhythmic foundation and melodic support without which the song may not exist. One definition of Love is: To actively support the spiritual growth of another.  My role in "Walking in Love" is to provide the physical support for the other artist’s efforts so that others may experience the Love that went into their creations.  


THANK YOU JOHN AND EVAN!