Flaming Angels, Guitars and Indestructible Me

This piece was created months ago as part of the Georgia Theatre art quilt, and as I'd hoped for all the pieces included in the quilt, it has a story.

The Canadian loves to shoot photos of statuary.
A couple of years back, he brought me an image of an angel loosely holding a palm frond. "Look at this Jennifer! Doesn't it look like she could be holding a guitar instead??"
He was excited, and he has more faith in my Photoshop abilities than I do, but to humor him, I played around with it.

I actually liked the angel/guitar creation; I had to use her on a quilt square. I'd been asked by the newspaper to demonstrate an example of a "no-sew" technique for them to photograph. Hmmmm...perfect!

As soon as I'd posted her originally, I realized there was an up and coming band in Athens called the Burning Angels.... no connection...I'd never even heard them play, but it amused me.

I've been thinking quite a bit about this piece over the last while....not so much in comparison with the idea of the Georgia Theatre rising from the flames, but on a personal level.
How many times have I just continued, playing on, oblivious to the destruction around me?
How many times have I been burned in the flames, only to reinvent myself and come back again?

“Only to the extent that we expose ourselves to annihilation

over and over again

can that which is indestructible be found in us.”

~Pema Chodron

Dreamboards with a Mind of Their Own

All the images dripping in glorious color that I pulled, and this is what manifested on my board--
all black and white.
I'm always amazed at how my boards turn out. I think they're going in one direction, only to find the opposite when I'm done.
I'm pleased with this one; it's lovely, elegant even. I'm still contemplating what the numbers mean....

Sending Love on Gilded Wings

from the Phoenix Rising -- Georgia Theatre Art Quilt Project
by Yours Truly

Where do I wish to send some love today?

Love being the most important thing that exists, where do I NOT wish to send it??

I wish to send it to all the parts of my body, especially to those parts that I tend to not find acceptable---not only that round, saggy belly, those seemingly ever-widening hips, but also to those tangled, knotted muscles that have been screaming for my attention for so long.
They have been slowly but surely responding to my love and attention, releasing their painful grip, and I feel deep gratitude to them for all that they are re-learning to do for me.

I wish to send love to all the hopes and dreams that I've let go of over the years of family-first, and physical pain, the ones who are daring to peek out, blinking, bleary-eyed at the glaring light of day.

I wish to send love to my bi-polar husband's darker side, accepting it as a part of him....embracing the shadow, learning to love and live with all of him.

I wish to send love to his estranged children, the ones that I have befriended, and the ones who remain separated from us. I also wish to send much love to his soon-to-be-born grandson (his first grandchild), half a world away from us, and especially to the daughter who carries him.

I wish to send extra love to each of my own children today---
those that are making their way out in the world, and those still at home who are struggling with tough school years (last year of jr high and last year of high school), and with depression.
I am so proud of each one of them!

Oh there are so many more places that need, want, deserve my love today!
I wish that I had time to list them all, but I will keep each of them in a special place in my mind and heart today.

Thank you Jamie, for reminding me today.......

Too Many Words

self-portrait
Too Many Words

There are still too many words buzzing around in my head to even begin to say what I'd want to today.

I spent the weekend with the lovely Baraka Elihu of WomanSpace, and a beautiful group of women writers, for a retreat so appropriately called Courting the Inner Artist
How inspiring!
And what a learning experience. My head is still spinning.

I felt such admiration for these women!
There were women of all kinds---
Young mothers...one totally devoted to her writing, to the point of scribbling as she wandered the hall during lunch....
Another just finishing her doctorate in anthropology, creating detailed visions for us of her travels to exotic places....Another young single woman, totally adorable, not sure of her direction just now, but absolutely sure that she wants to be in control of it for herself....
Another at mid-life, similar to me....starting to remember.

I realized just how much I miss writing....REAL writing (as opposed to writing strictly for money)
I wrote for survival, for companionship as a young girl, but writing fell by the wayside as I had children, and the demands of life overtook me and swallowed me up.

I realized that I still have something to say.
And that I have a right to say it.

Beautiful Beautiful Women
Rebecca, Katt, Susan, Baraka, Autumn