Welcome New Year
Hope by Bisa Washington
Welcome to a new year. While we want to look at each new year as a new start, a new beginning for some of us the years just seem the same. Yes, they start on a celebratory note. We make goals and new year declarations, but as the year progresses the goals and declarations slowly fade and are forgotten. However, this new year is notably different. Nature in the form of the coronavirus has a definite grip on how our year will progress. We have enacted certain behaviors to keep ourselves and family members safe from the virus that has the health of humanity in its grip. Likewise the political climate in our country is strained. In November we had a fair election with a remarkable turn out of voters. A winner was declared, but the loser in this election refuses to accept his lost. I don’t need to repeat the scenario. You know the story and what has unfolded as a result of the denial. Gill Scott-Heron wrote the poem “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised” but in our current reality it just might be. In the coming days we will see how this drama unfolds. Let's pray that, while 2021 is starting like no year we have witnessed before, it will be a good year and we will be all the better for having experienced it. Have a fantastic year.
Toni Thomas
Thoughts for a New Year
This year I asked a few friends for a message, a quote or an affirmation they could share that we could carry with us as we enter 2021. Below are their responses.
"Tell me, what is it you plan to do
with your one wild and precious life?" —Mary Oliver
And what if you discovered you had infinitely variable,
wild and precious lives?
– Ione
You're strategically designed for greatness and everything that is occurring in your life has a reason and a purpose. It's about how you use those experiences to better yourself
Deal with the cards you're dealt
– Jeremiah Fluerant
Chiku Chiku by Jody Leight
A Point of View
On UFOs
I once met a quilter who had no shopping bags full of scraps or closets stuffed with Unfinished Fiber Objects. She made lovely quits, worked from published patterns, bought exactly the yardage the pattern called for, and finished one project before she went on to the next. I think I had enough self-control at the time to avoid letting my mouth fall open in astonishment. In retrospect, I wish I had this on video. Meeting a quilter who lacked UFOs was a historic, and possibly unique, occasion.
Like all the other fiber artists I've ever met, I have plenty of UFOs in various techniques. Some of them are pretty old. Sometimes a UFO needs to ripen for a year or ten before its true purpose becomes clear. Eventually it will, and then you'll suddenly find the energy to finish it. Perhaps you'll think of a good way to upcycle it. These things happen in their own time, and they cannot be rushed.
At the beginning of the pandemic lockdown, I naively thought I'd catch up on some of my UFOs. As it turned out, while working from home spared me from time spent on NJ Transit, it added to the time spent dealing with balky technology. I spent a lot of time making masks last year. Now I'm back to doing artwork on my pre-pandemic system. If it's a commission, I focus on getting it done and delivered when promised. If my quilting muse drops a project into my brain and tells me I have to make it right now, I listen to her. Never argue with your muse. Otherwise, I knit during the endless Zoom meetings, and in my non-Zoom interludes I choose my project based on two criteria: 1) I can locate the materials for it; 2) neither of the cats is sitting on it. An additional random element is provided if I have to wait for something to get delivered. I'm not exactly short on supplies, but every so often a project requires a particular fabric or yarn that I can't find in my studio or the attic, so I order on-line. Whenever something shows up, it's a happy surprise.
I may or may not make a noticeable dent in my UFO collection over the next few months. It's okay either way. We're all going to be spending a lot of time at home this winter, and I'm grateful for my health, my comfortable home, my quilting muse, and my artist friends, even though we only meet on screen now. Let's be grateful for what we have, and let's be gentle with ourselves. Whatever we can get done today is just right.
Jody Leight
Art and Artists
Trees communicate with each other… When roots are destroyed or another is planted that is not related to it, it will not regenerate.
– Maggie Brown
Over the past months we have been looking at the art artists are producing during our global pandemic. During the spring months we had to shelter indoors but once summer broke we could not resist getting outdoors. We had a wonderful summer and some artists were beckoned to go into nature. Maggie Brown is one such artist. Her love affair with trees has produced a series of works inspired by their presence. This year was no different. Ms. Brown travelled north with her husband and found herself in an environment that welcomed her exploration of these massive life forms that give so much to us and that we sometimes take for granted. Ms. Brown makes us take another look at these textural giants. In her images we can discover the humanity within these sculptural life forms, and in their slow demise as they enable new life forms to evolve. There are no words that can express the beauty we see in these forms created by nature and immortalized by an artist.
