I love working with cloth, as did my mother and her mother and my daddy’s grandmother before me. Today I created a bit of a design wall so I could put some cloths on stage, audition them to see where to cast them. Nancy’s cloth #36 got the lead, center stage. I need more light on this stage.
~~~~~~~~~
She is my developmentally disabled sister-in-law, Nancy,
and I am Jeanne, the woman who flat-out loves her.
Go here to start at the beginning and read your way current.
And there’s a pinterest board, too.
I really like and appreciate the way she sees Nancy and this project.
Living in a thin place.
In constant contact with the creator of purple.
Yes. Oh my goodness, yes.
~~~~~~~~~
She is my developmentally disabled sister-in-law, Nancy,
and I am Jeanne, the woman who flat-out loves her.
Go here to start at the beginning and read your way current.
And there’s a pinterest board, too.
“Music expresses
that which cannot be
put into words
and cannot
remain silent.”
~ Victor Hugo ~
~~~~~~~~~
She is my developmentally disabled sister-in-law, Nancy,
and I am Jeanne, the woman who flat-out loves her.
Go here to start at the beginning and read your way current.
And there’s a pinterest board, too.
Mary asked if Nancy speaks when she draws, and no, she doesn’t. Interesting thing about Nancy and talking . . . at times in the past, she’s been criticized for talking too much. At times it was like she was on a short loop, repeating the same things over and over and over again. I think it was a sign she was excited about something, but who knows. Now she’s quieter, more reserved, and some voice concern over that, saying it points to early onset alzheimer’s. I have my own thoughts about that, but I’ll keep those to myself. And as I reminded my husband last week, their dad was extremely quiet. I notice that Andy acquires more of his dad’s mannerisms with age, perhaps Nancy does, too. Seems reasonable to me.
And she does talk – she’s not completely mute. Last week when she got into the convertible, for example, she looked at me and softly asked if we were going to see Penny. (Penny is a former caregiver whom Nancy adores and vice versa.) When Angela and I were down there in June, I arranged a surprise lunch for Nancy with Penny. Perhaps Nancy remembered and made that association. Who knows? Who cares where her her question came from? And she said several other things to me that afternoon. She assured me that she likes riding in a convertible, for example, and when I asked, she said yes, she wanted to draw. In other words, she talked to me about things she’s interested in enough to spill a few words.
When she draws, Nancy simply draws and smiles. Her smile is consistent, never wavering. As you can see in this video, she has her tongue to one side of her mouth like any young child intent on what they are doing. For decades, Nancy has chewed on her tongue. There’s frequently a lot of buzz and fuss about that, but she doesn’t bite hard enough to cause injury to herself, and want to know a secret? For as long as I can remember, I have occasionally lightly chewed on my tongue just because it feels good, kinda’ stimulating. Wakes me up. Tunes me into the present. Me? I think it quite possible that Nancy lightly chews her tongue for the sensation just like I think that’s why she enjoys riding in a convertible as much as she obviously does: engagement of all the senses. The wind blowing against her skin and through her hair, the road of the wind, the smell, the sounds of things outside and nearby. Maybe riding in a convertible makes her feel totally alive.
It’s all theory, of course, but three things I am absolutely sure of: 1) Nancy loves drawing. 2) Her drawings are art. 3) Her drawings are her own language, her own voice. Through her drawings, Nancy speaks.
(Note: You might want to mute this before viewing. As I said, Nancy doesn’t make any sound while drawing, but there is conversation happening all around her that’s really not all that interesting.)
~~~~~~~~~
She is my developmentally disabled sister-in-law, Nancy,
and I am Jeanne, the woman who flat-out loves her.
Go here to start at the beginning and read your way current.
Well, you know what they say about the best laid plans. I seem to have gotten us all out of order by traveling down the mountain but leaving the supply and stitching bag up on top of the mountain. I had a system, you see, using narrow strips that were leftover from making the panels, I’d write the number of each drawing on a little block of fabric and pin it to the back of the cloth panel. When I started posting on 7/1/2012, a happy accident occurred and each drawing corresponded to the date on the calendar. But by #32, I needed to back my ears and (a) do math or (b) develop a system. My system involved using a narrow strip of fabric leftover from when I made the cloth panels, cutting the strip into little blocks and writing the drawing number and the date of posting on each one. That worked great . . . for two whole days.
Fortunately (and for reasons I can’t explain), I had some drawings and some cloth, and being down the mountain and back in the land of convenience, I was able to purchase needles and floss and the other things I needed, so on Thursday, we skipped ahead by 10, and carried on.
Today, here’s #33. Will we get back on track now? I don’t really know. When I first realized I’d left the bag that held everything neatly organized and all laid out to keep me stitching uninterrupted through the traveling, I was distraught and aggravated. But I quickly developed a plan b and kept going. Now I’m thinking that creativity isn’t neatly organized, and it seldom goes according to plan. So maybe being off track puts us right smackdab on track, you know what I mean?
And here’s what the week looked like:
We’ll talk more tomorrow.
~~~~~~~~~
She is my developmentally disabled sister-in-law, Nancy,
and I am Jeanne, the woman who flat-out loves her.
Go here to start at the beginning and read your way current.
Then I stitch. Today’s cloth is being held by my friend Lisa McCauley who’s standing on the steps at the Frederick Brown Jr. Amphitheater in Peachtree City. Lisa is an attorney in the federal prison system, and though I’m not real sure of her exact title, I’m pretty sure it means She Who Must Be Obeyed. She’s on the Twilight Board of Directors, a long-time friend, and the mother of a very talented teenager. Always busy doing something, Lisa is a workaholic who takes her job(s) seriously and herself lightly. My kind of woman.
~~~~~~~~~
She is my developmentally disabled sister-in-law, Nancy,
and I am Jeanne, the woman who flat-out loves her.
Go here to start at the beginning and read your way current.
Never one to waste so much as a sapling, Nancy started on the cover of this tablet:
I thought it would be nice to get Nancy’s art out into the world, so I’m asking people to hold the cloth version every ‘n then. Today’s stitching is held by my friend Lori Grillo. I met Lori through the Twilight Theatre. My daughter, Alison founded the theatre in October 2007, and I quickly became the Managing Director. Lori and her entire family were in a summer stock production, and like so many other people, they were hooked. Every single one of them. Both daughters, her husband Bob, and Lori. For the past several years, Lori has been Twilight’s Production Manager, and let me tell you, she is amazing. And we couldn’t do it without her. She thinks, she plans, she laughs, she cries, she tends to all sorts of details that far too often go unnoticed but never unappreciated, she performs, and she always cheers for Twilight. In her life outside of Twilight, she works for College Options Foundation, and she preserves personal and family histories in scrapbooks. For these reasons and for so many other good reasons, I love her.
p.s. I know, I’m all over the place with the numbers. It’s a long story. Let’s just call it Jeanne Learns That There Is No Such Thing As Perfect, shall we?
~~~~~~~~~
She is my developmentally disabled sister-in-law, Nancy,
and I am Jeanne, the woman who flat-out loves her.
Go here to start at the beginning and read your way current.
Why, yes we are skipping around because we are traveling,
and I somehow managed to leave my stitching bag behind.
I did, however, manage to bring several panels
starting with #43,
so we’re improvising our way through the next few days
and I will get us back on track
when I am back up on top of the mountain.
Whether they’re in numerical order or not, she draws:
And I stitch:
Today, we are in Florida visiting Nancy,
taking her to ride in our rented convertible,
because let me tell you:
this girl LOVES to ride in a convertible.
Here’s our artist in action (hint: you might want to hit the mute button).
She filled another 3 notebooks today,
so I guess we all know what I’ll be doing
for the rest of my life.
~~~~~~~~~
She is my developmentally disabled sister-in-law, Nancy,
and I am Jeanne, the woman who flat-out loves her.
Go here to start at the beginning and read your way current.
I see her initials (NC)
and an ear.
How ’bout you?
What do you see?
~~~~~~~~~
She is my developmentally disabled sister-in-law, Nancy,
and I am Jeanne, the woman who flat-out loves her.
Go here to start at the beginning and read your way current.
39 years ago today
I married Nancy’s brother, Andy.
(which just goes to prove
that I’m much smarter than I look).
Nancy was 14 years old then.
Isn’t she adorable?
~~~~~~~~~
She is my developmentally disabled sister-in-law, Nancy,
and I am Jeanne, the woman who flat-out loves her.
Go here to start at the beginning and read your way current.
here ‘n there