So, I bet you’ve been wondering why it’s been a while since my last post. The reason is because I’ve been working non-stop on this new series of handmade silk scarves. Each pattern is hand drawn through a gutta resist dye process. The color is then painstakingly painted on using a liquid dye. (The red scarf alone took over six hours to add color to.) This process is followed up with steaming, rinsing and finalizing.
The series was created for a Donald Hall exhibit that will open at Purdue next Thursday, November 5th. The scarves are in response to the line “beautiful terrible sentences unuttered” from his poem ‘Without.’ Like many, I know all too well what it feels like to lose a loved one to cancer. This series of scarves follows my reaction to Hall’s poem as I personally related it to recent events in my life. Each one travels deeper into my interpretation.
The awkward start and stop. We knew it was the first time he had told this story. Starting to speak and taking a half rest, another sentence and a quarter rest. We might not understand but we want to, and we listen to the rests as closely as we listen to the consonants.
Because when I’m playing music, nothing else matters. I shape these phrases. This artist has no gallery. He has written the instructions on how to create a masterpiece and he trusts me to do it. Where does my expression end and the next artists’ begin? How else would my emotions become sound? (certainly not through words)
What would I not give to you? But while you’re in my life I will never show it- and as I watch faces slip away from me, I see the ones that are left more clearly. I cannot fully determine the effects others have had on me, and will never fully know the effects I’ve had on others. But our lives flow in unison like blood through veins.
Alysha, your new silk scarves are some of your best work. I love your use of colors and patterns.