Caught Up

Like many of my colleagues, friends and relatives, I've been caught up by the impending and then the actual transition of power in the U.S.  Nowadays it's not far from my thoughts, my journal entries, my online time.

As part of a music team at my church, there's a contemporary song we sing often, and the lyrics seem particularly right for this time in history -- especially, in my view, from one friend to another across the (currently) longest undefended border in the world.  It's called the "Servant Song"...

Brother, sister let me serve you.
Let me be as Christ to you.
Pray that I might have the grace
To let you be my servant, too.

We are pilgrims on a journey.
We are brothers on the road.
We are here to help each other
Walk the mile and bear the load.

I will hold the Christ-light for you
In the night time of your fear.
I will hold my hand out to you;
Speak the peace you long to hear.

I will weep when you are weeping.
When you laugh, I’ll laugh with you.
I will share your joy and sorrow
Till we’ve seen this journey through.

When we sing to God in heaven,
We shall find such harmony
Born of all we’ve known together
Of Christ’s love and agony.

Brother, sister let me serve you.
Let me be as Christ to you.
Pray that I might have the grace
To let you be my servant, too.

Richard Gillard of New Zealand - 1976-77 (emphasis mine)

I have vowed on Facebook and on my blog to try my best to be a light, a provider of thoughtful response/opinion, and a purveyor of "real" news and/or facts in light of the propensity nowadays for the opposite of those things.

And I have promised myself, if no-one else, that I will continue to make art, not (to the best of my ability) antagonism.

To that end, for the past couple of weeks (yes; it's really been that long since my last post!) I've ploughed ahead with various projects.

I entered this piece into the SAQA Spotlight Auction, which will take place at the conference in Lincoln, NE at the end of April and into early May:

Winter Walk: Astotin Lake (C) 2017

Look familiar?  It should! (GRIN)  It's the sample I made inspired by my daughter's wonderful photograph of herself doing exactly that -- walking out over the ice on Astotin Lake toward Elk Island (NE of Edmonton, Alberta).  

And it's the basis for this piece which is now finished but for sleeve, label and final photography:

Sometimes You Can Walk on Water (C) 2017
Approx. 42" W x 36" L

And...the basis for my latest piece for the 15 x 15 International Group, as we begin our 2017 year, focusing on working in a series.  

This is just a teaser...but you might 'get' where I'm going with this.  I have the facing to sew down and the sleeve to put in place -- and then final photos and write-up for the 15 x 15 website.  The full "Reveal" will be at the end of this month -- so stay tuned!

Yes...I am exploring two things concurrently (or maybe three, depending on how you look at it): abstraction, improvisational quilting and modern quilting.  To whit: 

• I've purchased a Craftsy.com class entitled "Designing Modern Quilts", taught by Weeks Ringle -- to which I've listened several times and have even done the assignments (which she refers to as 'explorations', which I like very much!);
• I've signed up for a class called "Mod Meets Improv" with one of my favourite teachers, Elizabeth Barton, over at The Academy of Quilting.  This starts January 27 online.  (Sorry; this class had a limited number of spaces and registration is now closed.  If you are interested in future offerings, sign up for e-mail notifications from the Academy HERE.); and 
• I've signed on for "Abstract-a-licious" a class on abstraction from my SAQA colleague, Lyric Montgomery Kinard, which begins in mid-February.  (Note: I met Lyric at the SAQA conference in Portland in 2015; she strode across the lobby to greet me, hand outstretched to shake mine, and said, "I'm Lyric".  Thunderstruck, it was all I could do to squeak out "I know" as I took her hand, my head nodding like some sort of dazed bobble-head doll.)

All of this is in aid of a larger purpose (or two): to expand my artistic repertoire and to enable me to make my DD a wonderful Modern Quilt for her next Big Birthday (a few fast-flying years away).  That would be the same DD whose photography has provided the head shot for Mark on the Body, has complemented my pieces at several of the annual Art Shows and Sales in Lacombe, and has inspired more than one piece of my work, including those mentioned above...

(C) Gina R. Blank, 2017.

So as I link up with Nina Marie's Off the Wall Friday...I leave you with these thoughts...

 

The first, from the Apostle Paul -- for the days/weeks/months/years ahead:

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonour others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.  Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.  It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.  Love never fails.... And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.  (1 Corinthians 13: 4-8, 13, New International Version)

The second, quoted recently by the wonderful Ms. Meryl Streep, from her colleague and friend, the late Carrie Fisher: 

Take your broken heart; make it into art.

The third, those lovely servant song words, sung by the composer:

Have a great rest of the weekend, everyone!