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 a 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.
