So today is October 7th. 2 years ago we were awaiting the birth of Baby Luke. My mother had just been admitted to a geriatric psychiatric unit in Plymouth MA. I had a terrible cold and we woke up to the news of the Gaza attacks.
Since then Israel has been emboldened to commit genocide, ecocide, war crimes and apartheid against those living in the West Bank. My mother passed away after a year of dementia, Baby Luke was born and Baby Blythe was born. Is it any wonder I feel overwhelmed, tired and have this odd feeling that time is both moving too fast and not moving at all.
The fall is always a challenging time for me artistically. It is interesting to look back and realize that most of what I do in the fall is “explore”. Although I am working I need to have faith that the work I am doing will lead somewhere. Whether it just be drawing a crumbled Kefiyah on the table or time spent building a still life to draw or painting flowers. I have to give myself permission to be tired, to read, to embroider, to think and not expect a finished work worthy of framing. This is not always easy as I definitely think that many mid-career or early career artists at my level focus too much on trying to create that finished piece. The piece that will get accepted into a juried show or sell or be hung and look pretty.
And so I continue my quests to not only create work that will be “pretty” or “visually interesting” but also work that is impactful that says something that is telling the world what I am thinking about and how I am processing all that is happening.
I went into the studio on Monday to do some Geli Plate prints. I was thinking about the crumbled Kefiyah I have been meticulously trying to draw and these prints emerged. I think they speak to the fracturing of the world around the topic of Palestinian and Israel.
