Patience…Persistence…and Resilience!
“Yes! We are delighted to have your show.”
With that response to my question about whether or not my last solo show scheduled for 2020 actually was going forward (when almost all my other shows had canceled), it’s on!
In Miller at the Marshall J. Gardner Center for the Arts, it’s a “go.” The opening is November 7 from 2-4 PM CDT.
So I’ve gathered my fiber paintings…some were in “storage” on friends’ walls and in coffee shops…others had been put to bed in one of my bedrooms wondering when they ever would see the light of day.
I added my “photo/haiku snapshots” that had been scheduled for Grand Rapids. “I’ll take them too,” I thought. So I packed them up as well.
When Covid set it, I left my studio. I went upstairs to spend more time with my husband. We hunkered down. Tim likes to watch more news than I do, so I began to weave.
I’ve been interested in weaving since the early nineties when I bought a loom with some money my mother left me. I’d always struggled with warping a loom (measuring and organizing all the threads, getting them through the eyes of the heddles, and “threading” the reed…all in perfect order). Before Covid, when I’d try to warp my loom, Tim always left the room fearing my cursing and frustration that was on display. And it was always so frustrating for me, that when I took a project off the loom, it took me forever to accept the challenge of another. So I decided it was time to become proficient.
I settled in. When Tim watched political pundits, I slowly and precisely warped my loom, thread by thread. I’m reminded of Madame Defarge as she knit during the French Revolution…but I was weaving, not knitting…and I WASN’T weaving the names of people to be beheaded!
As I warped and wove one project after another, I became more and more proficient. Practice really does make perfection more attainable! Sooo…my weavings are coming too.
There you have it…lessons from the pandemic: patience, persistence, and resilience! The same can be said for politics!
I’ll definitely be wearing a mask at the opening…and am looking forward to celebrating the creative spirit with you…November 7 from 2 – 4 CDT.