31.10.08

Handgemacht - grey-white-red (3)








Some writing...






...and some creatures appeared on the scene
- the lines in the fiber-paint-on-cotton-pieces turned from black to blue, so - ennoyed - I covered them with stitches - involuntary transforming what once had been a kind of vine pattern into a creature pattern...

29.10.08

Bodily warmth...




Always useful to have a couple of quilts around - especially when the gas-heating breaks down for days...




So I´m sitting near the kitchen oven, supplied with quilts and vitamines -







- stitching some more "clothworm traces"...


"...because truly to enjoy bodily warmth, some small part of you must be cold, for there is no quality in this world that is not what it is merely by contrast. Nothing exists in itself."

(Herman Melville: Moby Dick)

28.10.08

Balkongast












Late Autumn Wasp

"One must admire the desperate way it flings
itself through air amid winter’s slow paralysis,

and clings to shriveled fruit, dropped Coke bottle,
any sugary residue, any unctuous carcass,

and slug-drunk grows stiff, its joints unswiveled,
wings stale and oar-still, like a heart; yes, almost

too easily like a heart the way, cudgeled, it lies
waiting for shift of season, light, a thing to drink down,

gnaw on, or, failing that, leaves half of itself torn
willingly, ever-quivering, in some larger figure."

(James Hoch)

25.10.08

Handgemacht - grey-white-red (2)












... put together and quilted (about 50x50 cm )










"Withered vines, gnarled trees, twilight crows,
river flowing beneath the little bridge,
past someone's home.
The wind blows from the west
where the sun sets, it blows
across the ancient road,
across the bony horse,
across the despairing man
who stands at heaven's edge."

(Ma Chih-Yuan: Meditation in Autumn)

Borrowed this from whiskeyriver.blogspot.com

23.10.08

Handgemacht - grey-white-red (1)


Did some sketches with fabric paint on cotton, planning on adding fabric applications to it - but, still feeling tired and clumsy anyhow, this seemed a bothersome task




Cut one of the sketches into pieces instead, using them
in 4 patchwork blocks...



"Beauty is all very well at first sight, but whoever looks at it when it has been in the house three days?"
(William Shakespeare)

19.10.08

Coughing fit







Down with a cold...

16.10.08

Who´s afraid of grey-white-red...




Never been fond of red -
but, seeing this in a magazine, found the colour mix very appealing





Remembered a grey-white-red sketch I did a while ago...

...inspired by this photo in a book - a wonderful book, by the way, and a great solace for the gardenless: The Inward Garden/Beseelte Gärten by Julie Moir Messervy

Here another image from it - the hands and work of an old lady, despite severe arthritis tending to a big garden and doing opulent flower embroidery




Bought a piece of shocking red cotton, ready to make something grey-white-red...

12.10.08

Handgemacht - where´s the shore?








Had a guest from Greece for a few days, and involuntary musings on: How different might life be on an island in the sun? - which made their way out in this little meditation...

"When we have found all the meanings and lost all the mysteries, we will be alone, on an empty shore."
(Tom Stoppard: Arcadia)

10.10.08

Licht und Schatten












Berlin, Olympische Brücke


"Most people think that shadows follow, precede, or surround beings or objects. The truth is that they also surround words, ideas, deeds, impulses, and memories."
(Elie Wiesel)

9.10.08

Handgemacht - ploughing through the sewing basket





Thought it worth trying to finish at least one thing before beginning something new






Started machinequilting the ex-summer-quilt





It´s promising to become a comfortable and cheerful cover, but - machinequilting IS a bit boring...


"Cheerfulness, it would appear, is a matter which depends fully as much on the state of things within as on the state of things without and around us."
(Charlotte Bronte)

7.10.08

Yes, more leaves...











Leaves

Every October it becomes important, no, necessary
to see the leaves turning, to be surrounded
by leaves turning; it's not just the symbolism,
to confront in the death of the year your death,
one blazing farewell appearance, though the irony
isn't lost on you that nature is most seductive
when it's about to die, flaunting the dazzle of its
incipient exit, an ending that at least so far
the effects of human progress (pollution, acid rain)
have not yet frightened you enough to make you believe
is real; that is, you know this ending is a deception
because of course nature is always renewing itself—
the trees don't die, they just pretend,
go out in style, and return in style: a new style (...)

(Lloyd Schwartz)

4.10.08

Handgemacht - "state of mind" pillow








An ex-"summer" pillow`s journey into becoming an all-seasons-project - on the left, below the real one, grew one of the inevitable leaves...

"To be interested in the changing seasons is a happier state of mind than to be hopelessly in love with spring."
(George Santayana)

3.10.08

Didn´t the vines climb a wall...











October (section I)


Is it winter again, is it cold again,
didn't Frank just slip on the ice,
didn't he heal, weren't the spring seeds planted

didn't the night end,
didn't the melting ice
flood the narrow gutters

wasn't my body
rescued, wasn't it safe

didn't the scar form, invisible
above the injury

terror and cold,
didn't they just end, wasn't the back garden
harrowed and planted--

I remember how the earth felt, red and dense,
in stiff rows, weren't the seeds planted,
didn't vines climb the south wall

I can't hear your voice
for the wind's cries, whistling over the bare ground

I no longer care
what sound it makes

when was I silenced, when did it first seem
pointless to describe that sound

what it sounds like can't change what it is--

didn't the night end, wasn't the earth
safe when it was planted

didn't we plant the seeds,
weren't we necessary to the earth,

the vines, were they harvested?

(Louise Glück)


More about L. Glück at poets.org

1.10.08

Joseph Beuys exhibition

Visited preview of exhibition "Beuys - Die Revolution sind wir". Here a few images of works made with felt and fabric














"Lass dich fallen. Lerne Schlangen zu beobachten. Pflanze unmögliche Gärten. Lade jemand Gefährlichen zum Tee ein. Mache kleine Zeichen, die "ja" sagen und verteile sie überall in Deinem Haus (...)"
(Joseph Beuys)

Let yourself fall. Learn to observe snakes. Plant impossible gardens. Invite someone dangerous for tea. Make small signs which mean "yes" und put them everywhere in your house.

www.beuysinberlin.org