april fool/bearing witness


 this morning three of us went for a walk: Tungsten, our youngest son and me; he does that sometimes, join us on the walks; usually it's during the summer months with the long evenings and we go out after dinner into the woods and talk and walk, next to each other. As you can imagine I am grateful beyond comparison for these walks with a son; and on occasion I do mention to him  'when you're all grown up and don't live here anymore, you'll look back at these walks and remember them as something precious from your childhood.' He'll nod when I say this and I think he already senses this.  We walked along the river and startled many birds, it'll probably have to be the last walk along that particular stretch, as the nesting and brooding has started. I found these 7 white goose feathers. Gathered them and took them home with me, ah something white for the WhatIfClass! over at Jude's.
In the top left corner of pic above is Goode's world atlas, twelfth edition revised 1968; I find it very useful to be able to pinpoint where all the gals and 1 boy from Jude's class live in the states, as it is an atlas with the USofA at the centre of the world (- ; Of course other countries are featured as well and so I manage to find my way in the world and am able to imagine how and where people live.
I added the red bird to this small cloth last evening with a thick red thread I have forgotten whence it came, the white feathers will perhaps become attached to this particular bird. Isn't that how attachments grow: an object becomes attached to a person, a place, an entity and they cannot be separated without causing unnecassary pain; so I guess what happened here was: the bird was born and a day later the feathers were lost by another bird and found by the go-between and taken home, lain on the table next to the small-red-bird-cloth and through some kind of serendipitous magic they were drawn to each other and have formed a union of sorts.

feathers have become attached two hours later


at last the wooden figures are coming to life: here we have Celia, out of the blue her name popped up and Celia it is. Her head is the result of sawing off just that little bit from Julia(n)'s  left leg ( right on the pic below) I'm not sure he's a she or she a he; maybe both is good; will a torso and head materialize, arms and feet? still in the embryonic stage......Anyway I like that s-he is standing upright in a confident pose, with the dead leaf stuck in as decoration. I feel so fortunate that I have this studio where all these things can happen and I am a part of it all.

p.s. eldest son joined us on afternoon walk in the woods, a glorious day!


p.p.s. some of you might have been wondering what became of the rest of the chair: it got screwed onto a tabouret, as seen here on tp of verandah-table, in the background you van see my blue studio; with the sun out I decided all of the winter-plastic-sheeting could at last be taken off of the verandah: we are looking forward to life outdoors.......in the sun, out of the still chilly wind it feels warm-ish

Comments

Nancy said…
Love your red bird and this post and it reminds me of the late nights when my son was in his late teens/early twenties...the last years he lived at home and we would talk...usually on his bed, or maybe mine...late late at night. Midnight talks that were filled with philosophical questions and values and ideas on living. Some of my best memories of time spent with him.

I miss those nights.
Saskia said…
oh Nancy, oh and yes how you must miss those nights.....do you stay in touch? They drive me crazy at times, and then they do and say things that kind of break my heart and I see the beauty of who they are. So much in my work is about them and our relations and my 'feelings' for them, for others that are meaningful to me. They see what I make as something that is a natural part of my being and they look at it as part of our daily lives together.
I think the 'walking together' with them transpires in the pieces in some way.
Nancy said…
How lucky for you...to have them see you for who you are, to have them share your space and your walks now and then.
Keeping in touch is a strange thing. Yes we do, but quite spread out. And yes I miss those nights, and them. Things are not as I would have predicted they would be. But you do what you can, need to, have to. There are no guarantees. For sure.
Saskia said…
I do feel incredibly lucky

tungsten

tungsten

Popular Posts