Threads of Meaning : a course of discovery

Silence

In her remarkable text, "World Enough and Time ," Christian McEwen offers some advice:
"Without a steady background of silence, it can be difficult to hear oneself think.”

The fast pace of modern culture and its distractions inhibit our ability to settle into the quiet space of mind wandering - a place where ideas come to life.  The work of setting aside time for listening to the quiet is an artist's responsibility.  Rests between notes and our exhales complete the cycles of music or the breaths we take.

I have been reading Christian McEwen's book as a study in the creative act as much as practice for slowing down. Creativity seems familiar to me but slowing down, while a curiosity, is quite foreign. McEwen writes about her friend, Arthur Strimling, “as a boy, he was seen as “incredibly headlong,” always being told to slow down.” (p. 215)  I immediately related to this reference, when, as a child, I was considered quick-footed and coined ‘nervous.’  My parents fostered "slow and deliberate" behavior.  Spritely pace and sensitivity could only bring chaos and doom.   

I managed to survive these criticisms and have come to recognize the value of stopping, settling in and listening to the quiet.  This knowing doesn't preclude a return to old habits now and then.  Even Christian has to remind herself to catch her breath sometimes.  I use routine as markers, touchstones that prompt quiet and meditative activity.  I highly recommend it.

Persistence, Commitment, Intention

In Malcolm  Gladwell's book "Good to Great," he suggests that becoming an expert at something, requires 10,000 hours at the task.  Since that book's writing,  various opinions on the subject have blown holes in this measure .   But I use this reference as a platform for persistence and commitment to an act or an activity.  The benefits of stitching quietly and with intention, do not emerge magically in an instant.  While I recall a sudden physical transformation once, when I took up needle and thread amid the hurried backstage pace of a High School theater production,  it is the constancy of work through years of stitching that has formed the thesis for my thinking.  

Sitting quietly, focusing on a simple repetitive movement, opens the mind's eye to new clarity.  The wandering mind discovers intuition and ideas which grow from the work of the hands.  What emerges are stories, memories, solutions.  They are not about the stitching, but find their way into it as the work speaks in conversation with the maker.  What comes next?  Which direction should the needle take?  The story takes shape, new form and in some cases a firm resolution as it exits from your mind to the cloth.

There is only one ( breakable) rule for Threads of Meaning.  Do not remove a single stitch.  The hand knows the hearts intention long before the mind figures it out.  Go with what your hand decides.  And trust that as you see the work evolve and come to finish, its beauty is in those imperfect marks. However believing comes with experience.

Naming

Before you can begin to recognize the clues your stitching is giving you, you must practice the art of naming.  For this reason, I give exercises and readings to tease out the ideas in the beginning. You will answer a question. You will create a list.  You may read a poem, over and over and over.  You will have to describe something, recognize something, discover something.

Later on, ideas will flow from the work.  But you are encouraged to stay a bit off balance, not becoming too comfortable with the familiar.  I will suggest, sometimes, stopping in the middle of a project (I hear the groans already) and pushing yourself to begin another.  I will suggest revisiting previous themes in your work to help you explore them more deeply.  (By the way, series work is evidence of intention.)  As we work together, I will notice things about your work as you go, and give you individual projects to push your work to another level of discovery.

You will borrow, from the world around you, imagery for personal icons that hold significance to you alone.  A silhouette of one such icon, appearing in your project will hold volumes of information.  I encourage you to build a library of icons.

Openness and Patience

Your goal is to stay open and be patient.  Start a routine of your own.

On day one, sit quietly for one full minute.  Set a timer if you have to.  On the second day, sit quietly for  1 1/2 minutes. On day three, take a walk and stop for two minutes.  Use these windows of time to become aware of your body's sensors.  Look, listen, smell.  Use your body's radar to inform what you are feeling in these moments, be it your heartbeat or an emotion.   Notice the poetry that surrounds you.

Poetry by William Stafford

Its door opens near.  It's a shrine

by the road, it's a flower in the parking lot

of  The Pentagon, it says, "Look around,

listen.  Feel the air."  It interrupts

international telephone lines with a tune.

When traffic lines jam, it gets out

and dances on the bridge.  If great people

get distracted by fame they forget

this essential kind of breathing

and they die inside their gold shell...