not all roads...

"when's all said and done,

all roads lead to the same end.

so it's not so much which 

road you take,

as how you take it."

-charles de lint

i have been spending a lot of time lately communing with my cloth and eco-dyes. music and imagination. opening myself to the possibilities of my work. trying to see where it has all be leading me. this past year has seen many new starts. new directions. new experimentations. and i am quite certain that there are many more to come. will always be too many to contemplate. however, in this moment, this is what comes to mind: each path, whether explored in depth or merely given a cursory glance, seems to be leading me in a myriad of directions. not as easy a journey as the old proverb suggesting that "all roads lead to rome." instead, each road leads me to the next. and the next. and the next after that. each contributing a cobblestone, if you will, to help pave the way to what will come: figure; story; eco-dyes; salvage cloth; re-designed cloth; tattered edges; community; fragments of thought and fiber... but where is it all leading?

at the moment, i am taking a step back. creating some spaciousness wherein i may see more clearly. a task which has lead me to pull out my salvage quilt and begin working once again on its seemingly endless array of mindless machine-stitched seams and hand-stitched allowances. there is a story in this cloth. a story of community. cobbled together from the cast-off garments this town's residents. some known to me. some not. and like all communities, there are layers forming. first, and simplest, are the machined seams holding the fragments of garments together. forming a foundation. second, the hand-stitching to hold the seam allowances down, yes. but also to begin to add texture and a foreshadowing of color and line and direction. once these have been brought to a level where the cloth will reside in strips (or rows) we will begin to see a coming together of community. then will begin the next layer. the continuing of story. figures. thoughts. fragments. stitched in layers upon this foundation. and the next.

it will be a long journey. no community manifests overnight. but it will be an interesting one. full of revelations. of heartbreak. and celebration. a laying down, step by step, fragment by fragment, of the story of this community of residents. human and otherwise. which will create a human wrapping cloth...a haven of fragments of time and memory to warm the body. to hearten the mind...that will allow me to take my town with me when i leave in a couple years. a gift to myself...and to what will eventually become my memory of this place.  amongst its whispers, this cloth has been asked to be re-named: relic, a gathering of lives.

relic is keeping me quite busy tonight...

namaste'