Third of Five

I delivered my third of five this past Tuesday evening.

It so happened that in the course of this facebook pay-it-forward game one of my five ended up being Kevin, a guy I’ve known for about 18 years. Which is fine except . . . I work in fabrics! I racked my brain . . . what am I gonna make for a guy? Finally I came up with a concept and then spent some time in the fabric store with my mom and sister finding the right fabrics to complete my vision.

I finished an incredible wall hanging for him a few weeks ago. I called his wife on a Friday afternoon to find out if there was a time I could come by the house when Kevin wasn’t around so I could put it up and surprise him. Turns out he was having dialysis three nights a week so we scheduled for the following Monday evening.

On the Sunday of that weekend, she called me. We couldn’t come over on Monday because she and Kevin were headed for Portland. They had gotten a call and the kidney he had been waiting for was now waiting for him! Praise God! Kevin has diabetes and has been on a waiting list for a new kidney for some time.

The surgery was successful and everything looks good. Kevin is feeling better than he has in years. Talk is they are releasing him this Friday (today). Since I had decided the thing to do was to have it hanging in their home when he walks through the door, CJE and I talked their son into letting us in on Tuesday night to put it up. Now it is there, waiting for him whenever he gets home.

My readers get a little sneak peek. The hanging is about 40" square. It was great fun to make and I have adapted the “plaid looking” border for several other projects cause I just love it.

Joining up today with:

So this is art

In the past I have attended many spiritual retreats, but one in particular stands out in my mind. It happened some years ago. It was a women's retreat put on by our church. About a dozen of us went to Wallowa Lake Camp in the Blue Mountains of Oregon one weekend in March and had an amazing experience.

This happened to be at a very low time in my life. Isn’t it interesting that at those lows times is when we are most open to new truths?

The retreat was led by Ardis Letey. She is an artist from coastal Oregon.

She taught us some very helpful techniques and methods. We worked with several different media and learned and grew and had a marvelous weekend.

I’ll be the first to admit that I can no longer remember much of what we actually did during the retreat. Only one of the items I created, a painting of a sunflower drifting on the open sea, is still around. However, that doesn’t matter because of something Ardis told us which has stuck with me all these years. She told us:

“Art is the process, not the product.”

Read it several times, and then go back and read it again. All you tentative artists out there, ingrain it on your hearts and minds.

What you produce, or not, doesn’t matter. It is in the process where you find the art.

The hours I spend at my sewing machine sewing or at my writing table designing and drafting, that is the art. That is the satisfaction. That is the sweetness, the holiness, if you will.

My art is sanctuary for me. It is where I escape to when life has gotten in the way and the stress of keeping all the balls in the air has become too great.

For me, in art there is peace. When the pressure to produce something amazing, beautiful, wonderful, that everyone is going to “get” is lifted, freedom and liberty to simply create is granted and the heart and mind can truly soar. It is an incredibly uplifting feeling and I find often during this process is when my soul has its best communion with God.

I encourage everyone, with or without artistic leanings, to give this a chance. When you sit down to draw, sew, paint, write, sculpt or _____, grant yourself the freedom to move in the spirit and get lost in the process. The process that IS art.

I posted this several months ago, but really felt moved to repost as I am preparing to leave for Quilt Camp in less than a week. - Janie