Welcome to Walking In Love

If this is the first time you have come to this blog, welcome. The nature of blogs is like reading a book from the end to the beginning. This blog has chronicled the creation of a group art installation, the Walking In Love Installation. So if this is your first visit to the site please go to the archives on the right and begin at the oldest blog and read forward for the story. This blog was begun in January 2011.

I can pretend this is a prologue, that you have never read about Walking In Love before. What would I like you to know? An idea came to me. One that many people (gratefully) decided was worthy of their creative time and attention. A journey began. It has been full of all of the emotions life has to offer. In the end we created a magnificent one of a kind art installation which touched many lives. I hope you enjoy reading about this experience.

Walking In Love at Five Windows Gallery

I am pleased to announce that the Five Windows Gallery in Weaverville, California will show 8 of the 40 panels which were created for the full installation of Walking in Love. Kimberly Piazza, gallery manager, is showing the best of all Weaverville shows from 2011 and invited Walking In Love to exhibit a sample of our group effort. It is so difficult to pick just eight panels to represent the entire work. It is the whole that made the show unique and powerful. It is likely that I will return to Weaverville part way through the exhibit and change out some of the panels in order to offer a fuller experience to viewers. Currently you can see eight panels in the front window of the gallery on Highway 299. What an honor it is to be considered among the best art that Trinity County offers.

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