Friday, December 16, 2011

Mountain Ash Berries


Priorities scolded "no", the muses encouraged "yes". You can see who won out. Just had an overwhelming urge to start playing with this idea inspired by the mountain ash berries covered with snow. Too often I put off moving ahead with something so long that I lose the idea. Not this time. Besides, it's on my list of goals for the month.

And now I'm off to the reception for "Cabin Fever."

4 comments:

coronis3 said...

I found your site via a search for Emily Carr, one of my favourite painters since my youth. Your Emily Carr Skies quilt (2009) is so creative and beautiful! I cannot help but think that Emily would have been pleased with her namesake :) What lovely work you do!
jill

The Idaho Beauty said...

Thank you Jill. That is lovely to hear. Do you know of Emily Carr because you have connections to the Pacific Northwest or by some other means? If my friend June had not been such a fan and shared her painting with me, I never would have known about her nor done the research I did. Very intrigued with her work.

coronis3 said...

I can't believe that you wrote back ~ how sweet of you to know that I'd check. The only connection I have to Canada's west coast was when my brother lived in Vancouver in the early '70's and I visited him from here in Toronto. More of a Gastown, drug induced vision than one of Emily's natural empathic purity, I'm afraid!

I was a wayward kid in the 60/70's but my art teacher grabbed me up by the inside strings and told me that I had something to say and that I could and should say it in art. She told me that she believed in me. She was a strong woman with a vision for her students, that Mrs. Hulme. She introduced me and my peers not only to the great art of any country/era but particularly to the art of Canada. What a significant and beautiful woman. Check out the Group of Seven if you haven't already, you will be pleasantly surprised, I know it.

Emily Carr became a kind of mantra for me. I saw in her work the same things that I see in the trees, lakes and sky; the things that I also see in the paintings of Vincent Van Gogh, a recognition and ability to recreate artistically the energy underlying all life: cosmic energy; photosynthesis; a death glare; You know? That energy that we do not define and some seem unable to see or comprehend.

I see it also in your work. You, to me, are an artist of great vision, it is there. Don't let the patriarchal dismissal of textile arts dissuade you, not ever. You are significant and important.

Thank you for being here for me.

j.

The Idaho Beauty said...

What a beautiful gift your words are! Thank you again. I wish I'd had an art teacher grab on to me early on. I always feel hampered by my lack of art background though I try hard to catch up these days. I love learning about not just technique or design but history of art too. Will have to do some research on the group of seven, most of the names not familiar to me but as you say, look to be artists that I will love.

Thank you so for the encouragement. There are days when I think I'm nothing but a hack...;-)