Category: Jeanne’s Barefoot Heart (Page 36 of 99)

Jeanne’s personal creative pursuits of stories stitched, written, and spoken

A Different Way to Look at the Heavens

August 6, 2013 / jeanne / 0 Comments

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Today was a play day with Stacy, a cousin who I love more like a brother, if you want to know the truth. We went to PARI (Pisgah Astronomical Research Institute), a delightfully marvelous, accessible, educational facility tucked away in the beautiful Blue Ridge Mountains. We ran our hands along a tire that once stood between the earth and one of the space shuttles, and when we saw the ridiculously thin tread, Stace said “No wonder the shuttle needed a parachute to stop it.” We looked at satellites, one adorned with a smiley face painted on during the mid 1960s just to say to the Russians “We see you.” (The Russians, we were told, stamped out dirty words in the snow by way of response.) We marveled at the variety of meteorites on display and laughed out loud at the hallway lined with spectacular photos of the moon, an event our granddaddy died believing was television hoakery.

John the Tour Guide showed us all sorts of computers, one of which that’s tracking the earth’s drifting and shifting magnetic something-or-other. It kinda’ alarmed me, really, so I asked him about the implications of that change, and I don’t know if he understood my question or not, but I know for certain that I didn’t understand his answer. John in the Control Booth told us about watching quasars and blips and sounds that are so far away, it makes my head hurt to think about it. (Next time I’m going to ask him if he’s looking into our past or into our future.)

Then they gave us a map, circled some spots they thought we might enjoy, and bid us farewell. We went straightaway to the new Observation Deck where the view was quieting and the quiet was deafening. “Though I don’t know exactly how,” Stacy said as we were leaving, “my life will be better for having been here.”

To which I said simply: Amen.

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Sands Through the OURglass

July 31, 2013 / jeanne / 13 Comments

Out1

Forty years ago, I publicly promised to spend the rest of my life with this one man named Andy – a man I’d known a scant six months at the time. I’m still married to him though we don’t look the same and neither does our marriage . . .

Then we vowed to stay with each other in sickness and in health with only some romanticized notion of what that meant based on movies we’d seen and books we’d read. Now after his stent a few years ago and my recent bout with staph infection, we have a clearer idea of what that means, the patience it requires, the commitment is demands.

Then we spent a lot of energy finding ways to be together. Now that we’re together 24/7, we find ways to build some space in our togetherness – even if it’s only agreeing to work on our separate projects for three hours then meet in the kitchen at noon for lunch.

Then we looked forward to the weekends for the romps and recess they offered. Now that the structure provided by careers and children is gone, we create our own weekends by doing something outside the normal routine, even if it’s simply dropping the dog off at the spa then taking ourselves on a walk through the local village green to look at the new art sculptures on display or taking a leisurely trip to the local museum.

Then we were high on the thrill of discovering everything we could about each other. Now we deliberately find ways to lay out the welcome mat for surprise in general, even if it’s something as simple attending an art lecture on the Spiritual Language of Paintings and practicing our new vocabulary and pondering our new perspectives over pizza afterwards.

Then we held hands everywhere we went.
We still do.

Then we laughed as often as possible.
We still do.

Then we made it a point to argue and disagree in ways that don’t require follow-up apologies.
We still do.

Then we knew we’d spend the rest of our life together.
We still do, though we now know that forever isn’t infinite, and that makes all the difference in the world.

JeanneAndy07319173framed

I Felt So Bad I Forgot to Put on Lipstick

July 28, 2013 / jeanne / 5 Comments

NancysNewDrawingJuly2013

THIS ‘N THAT:

Since we last met,

I traveled out to the rehearsal dinner and wedding of the son of my cousin Stacy;
helped with all the needs to be done during hell week of Twilight’s last production (Les Mis, school edition)
sold a house (can I get a hearty YAY?)
threw myself into an unplanned, time-consuming, and ultimately fantastic studio makeover
visited Nancy and picked up about 500 new drawings. That’s one of her newest there at the top of this post – um, yeah, I’ll be stitching till kingdom come, and honestly, I can’t think of a better way to spend the rest of my life. Her teacher keeps colored pencils and paper within reach of Nancy at all times. Says when Nancy draws, she calms down, smiles, and focuses. Art will do that to a girl, I tell you.
finished stitching In Our Own Language, 2.1, have based In Our Own Language, 2.2, and conjured an image of what In Our Own Language 3 will look like
gone and gotten myself sick (see below)
finished my art class, graduating With Distinction.

[ :: ]

FROM THE SICKBED . . . I MEAN SICK SOFA:

I felt so bad this morning, I forgot to put my lipstick on when i went to the urgent care for the third consecutive day. I have a place on my face that I thought was a pimple caused by using hotel lotion as my nighttime moisturizer since I forgot to pack mine when we traveled down to see Nancy almost 2 weeks ago. Well, if this was a pimple, it was the pimple to end all pimples. One thing led to another, and a week ago I went in to let a professional have a look see. She declared it a spider bite (ON MY FACE? eeeewwwww) and prescribed some antibiotics that didn’t work, as anybody could see. Friday morning I told Andy that I had to go back because it took way too much energy keeping my imagination in check. I’ve been to the urgent care unit so many consecutive days that they’re just running a tab for me. I expect we’ll all be swapping Christmas gifts. Same goes for the pharmacy where I’ve gone every day to get a new prescription. Yesterday was a pretty awful, horrible day, and today I woke up feeling so bad, I forgot to put on my lipstick before I left the house.

Every time I encounter somebody and they don’t throw up or run away screaming, I tear up with gratitude. Once I’m on the mend and the various aches and pains are on the run, I’m gonna’ have to devote some pondering beauty and identity and vanity and such as that.

[ :: ]

HOUSEKEEPING NOTE:

For the past several weeks I’ve been working to merge my two blogs. Why? Because I am tired of living a containerized life. Books, art, cloth, laughter, sickness, health, saging – these things and more are my life. Period. Gone are the days when I had a tote bag for each different interest – now my life is my art, and my art is my life. There may be some hiccups along the way, so thank you in advance of your patience. That kind of tinkering under the hood is quite tedious and time-consuming. I’m sure I don’t know/didn’t think of everything, and I would like to thank my son Kipp for helping bail me out of A Big Huge Pickle I got myself into last week – a pickle that had to do with links and broken links and 301 redirects, I won’t bore you. If you just want the feeds, try this: feedly.com. I’m still working on how to generate just rss feed – I’ll keep you posted. If you want to subscribe by email, though, click right this way. If you’re receiving this email, you’ve already subscribed, so thank you.

[ :: ]

AND NOW:

It’s time to take my new meds and try to finally start the healing process. I’ve missed you.

Like I Tell The Kids: If You Don’t Tell ‘Em What You’re Doing, They’ll Think You’re Doing Nothing

June 25, 2013 / jeanne / 5 Comments

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Don’t take up too much space.

It’s not nice to talk/think/write/focus so much on yourself.

Who do you think you are?

(which was really more of a statement than a question).

These are some of the messages that came at me from all directions during my formative years, and let me tell you what: they burrowed in deep and took a tight hold. Despite my Big Birthday, I still need reminding every now ‘n then (like yesterday, for example), and I thank my son Kipp for splashing a little of his wisdom on me and wrapping it around my finger as a constant reminder that it’s not only okay, it’s imperative that I speak up and tell people what I want and need instead of wishing, hoping, thinking, and maybe even praying that they’ll get it on their own. It’s okay, for example, to tell the hair stylist that I need a towel under my neck at the wash basin. And it’s okay to open my mouth and tell my friend that I’d like her to occasionally ask me how my writing is going. And to tell another friend that I’d sure appreciate it if she’d give me credit when using my words. That it’s okay if I look my mother right in the eye and tell her that I need and want more than anything for her to see me as the creative, funny, trustworthy, honest, reliable, responsible, talented, caring woman I am. Cause you know what? I just can’t waste another nanosecond sitting around waiting to be discovered.

Lee Bontecou

June 17, 2013 / jeanne / 0 Comments

Bit2

Mara Tapp: And she [Lee Bontecou, sculptor] is also a very generous artist. She says, ‘Think whatever you want about my piece.’

Elizabeth Smith, curator: She doesn’t want to impose. She’s probably most closely allied to the abstract expressionists because she acknowledges when she was a young artist [during] the heyday of the abstract expressionists, she admired not only their work but the idea of freedom and experimentation that their work embodied and the way they lived their lives. They weren’t theorists. They didn’t talk about their work. It was intuitive. She still doesn’t want to really talk about her work. She doesn’t want to fix meaning. She wants to keep it open for people.

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Mara Tapp: Do people ever ask you, ‘What does this mean?’ What do you say?

Lee Bontecou I don’t answer at all. It’s what you see in it. What I see in it is something else. I don’t get caught up in that.

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Mara Tapp: What do you want them to take away?

Lee Bontecou: Their own thoughts, I guess, and their own feelings about it. Out in LA they were seeing something in themselves and they thanked me for maybe helping them to see something. It was the best. Not ‘How did you do this?’ or ‘How did you do that?’ but just something they had gleaned from themselves. Everybody has a different take on everything. I’ve had people come and say, ‘I didn’t see that as foreboding. I saw it as something really funny.’ That was their view. Something inside their life–I don’t know what it was, but it was good.

You don’t have to use the same medium to share the same philosophy.

[ ::: ]

snippets of an interview found here

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Tickled to be making a guest appearance here today.

It’s Summertime, and I’ve Gone A-Visitin’

June 17, 2013 / jeanne / 0 Comments

Today I’m tickled to be visiting over at Dian Reid’s place, talking about summertime and bats flying the belfry and all that. So what say you just bop on over and pull up a chair?

Let’s Get Right to the Point, Why Don’t We

June 14, 2013 / jeanne / 2 Comments

Putting things off is part of my process.

When I write, I transcribe the voices. When i stitch, I spend time deconstructing the image pinned to my imaginary design wall to see how it’s done and where to start. I’m not talking about that – that’s part of the process. But I’ll tell you the flat-out truth: I do procrastinate when it comes time to do something I don’t want to do.

Like, oh I don’t know, maybe CREATING BIAS STRIPS. I put that off as long as I could, but we have company coming for supper tonight, so I need to move forward and clear the table so we have a place to eat.

Don’t think I didn’t consider using tv trays, though.

For two nights I read about how to create bias binding. I did my (dreaded) calculations, but today when I took a deep breath and started, I never could get the square cut. It’s a spatial concept, you see, and I don’t do those well.

Just like I can’t do a lot of things in yoga on account of I have short arms.

Bias2

I have only a finite amount of fabric (that was purchased in another state, mind you), so it really didn’t take me all that long to hit the Pffffft Point and just started cutting. Oh sure, I cut at a 45-degree angle and all that, but the instructions from Those Who Know About This Kind Of Thing say I should have little bitty points where I join 2 strips together.

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Well, I didn’t. I had big points. Big, I tell you. If I covered the tip end of those points with a little bit of wadded up tin foil and sat the whole thing on top of the tv, I’d probably get much better reception. And you know what? I’m fine with that because while I may never make an A in bias, and while my bias points may be larger than your bias points (which may or may not be a metaphor.) (I’m from The South, so I’m used to being told that I have big biases.) (Mostly from folks who’ve never even driven through here.) (But we’ll talk about that later.), I still got the job done.

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And I only have to do it two more times. (Hint: this is not a cause for celebration.)

I tell you one thing, thought: if I never have to deal with bias again, I’ll die happy . . . which may or may not be another metaphor.

granting myself leniency

June 8, 2013 / jeanne / 0 Comments

Stainedglassfabrics

i’ve been down the mountain for a few days, helping my mother and daughter with a few things and tending to some business. there’s never much time for editing or stitching when i’m down there, (not much time for journaling or even thinking either, for that matter), but i did manage to sneak in a quick – and i do mean quick – trip to the fabric store where i found a few pieces that will be just what i need (at least i think i need at this point) to finish out In Our Own Language, set 2. i’m counting that short-lived shopping spree as forward motion.

it’s about time. really.

June 3, 2013 / jeanne / 0 Comments

Doctor says she still thinks this second round of sinus infection, complete with ear infection, stems from that knock up side the head I got in Denver about a month ago. I don’t know, just hope this antibiotic works and works fast. Takes 1.5 hours each way to get to/from the doctor’s office now that we live on top of the mountain. Curvy, mountainous roads, you know. That’s almost half day just in travel time.

Cake

Spent the afternoon baking a cake and cooking The Birthday Boy Andy’s favorite foods for supper. The cake doesn’t look like much, but you know these that fall out of the pan in clumps taste the best.

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All that left precious little time to hold a needle and thread, and as usual, I bump into things I hadn’t thought about. This time it’s wanting what is now the top side of the work-in-progress to be the backside of the finished piece. So I treated it like I take pound cakes out of the pan: put another piece of fabric on top, then basted the doilies down. Will turn it over, clip basting threads, stitch doilies in place, then add Nancy’s set 2 drawings on top. There’s got to be a less time-consuming way, but it hasn’t come to me yet, and I don’t have time to wait.

It’s times like this I wonder why I can’t be content to just sit and read books.

Happy Birthday to Nancy

June 2, 2013 / jeanne / 8 Comments

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Today is Nancy’s birthday. We called her, but Nancy never has quite mastered (or bothered) with telephones. She does, however, like postcards, so perhaps you’d like to send her one every now ‘n then? I probably should mention that it’s an exercise in letting go to send her a postcard because somebody has to deliver it to her, read it to her, and tuck it away somewhere, and that’s a lot of hands that might get busy or distracted or just never get around to it. When I go visit, I seldom see any of my cards, but who knows why, so I just say Whatever and hope that somehow in the inexplicable magic that connects us, Nancy knows I’m thinking about her when I select, write, and mail the postcard.

If you feel like it, send postcards to Nancy Chambers/Gatlin Cottage/Duvall Presbyterian Home/POB 220036/Glenwood, FL 32722-0036. And hey, thank you.