Tag: communion series

communion 10

June 20, 2014 / jeanne / 2 Comments

Andytiesknots

today, while the engineer tied knots
(i’m always impressed with all the things he learned
while under the tutelage of the Boy Scouts and his dad)
so our daughter and her friend could do this:

Lake10

and i could ride around and feast on this:

Lake11

and, this,

Lake3

(which is an art installation, if you ask me
’cause i just have a thing for fabric
fluttering in the breeze)
i tied my own knot.
well, knots, actually
several of them,
taking Communion 10 from this:

Communion10before2

to this:

Communion10after2

when lisa call saw the “before”,
she said she kept wanting to
pull the blue swath down.
rather than remove all those french knots,
i decided to add a piece of blue,
and now it feels more balanced.
anchored.
complete.

~~~~~~~

the Communion series
is a selection of
non-representational representations
of conversations with my
developmentally disabled
sister-in-law, nancy.

communion #13 takes the stage

June 18, 2014 / jeanne / 4 Comments

Communion13h

according to merriam-webster.com, communion means:

Communion13a

. . . a close relationship with someone or something

. . . an act of sharing

Communion13f

. . . intimate fellowship and rapport

. . . a friendly relationship marked by harmony

this is the 13th in a series i dubbed Communion.
each piece is a visual non-representational representation of what a conversation with nancy is like.

Communion13b

“accord” is a synonym for “communion”, and it means to give to someone or something.
It is a middle english word that found its way into being from the latin word for heart.

Communion13d

this series keeps me sane because i can start and finish in less than one week (i’m the poster girl for accomplishment-oriented folk) and because i get to grapple. trust me when i tell you that every conversation with nancy involves grappling.
grappling is good for the soul.

Communion 7: The Little Cloth that Could

November 12, 2013 / jeanne / 11 Comments

This latest addition to the Communion Series (cloths that visually describe what it’s like to have a conversation with Nancy) comes with a subtitle: “And Then . . . ” or maybe “Well, shoot” or maybe “I Think I Can . . . ”

Communion7a

Things went okay . . . at first.

Communion7b

Communion7i

I tucked all the assorted colorful bits of fabric under the veil then added some that escaped, some that seeped out from under the veil.

Communion7m

Even though chaotic stitches held everything in place, I decided to stitch a spiral down over it all, never once considering that it might turn out looking much like the rocket bra that one never-to-be-named relative wore to Thanksgiving 2004.

Communion7o

Even with the surprise 3-D element, it looked kinda’ plain and unfinished, so I added French knots around the rocket bra-ish spiral . . . only I didn’t have enough black floss and couldn’t find any at the beach, so I bought some black crochet thread and used that (which was hard on the fingers) (but I actually wound up liking the shade and substance it added) (though not enough to take out the knots made with black floss. As it turns out, the blacks were divided kinda’ half and half on the piece, so I decided to pretend that was part of the design.) (Two people in communication and all that, you know.) (I can justify with the best of ’em.)

Communion7d

Ordinarily I like softly frayed, unfinished edges, but this fabric was especially bad to ravel, so I added a healthy coat of Fray Check to all the edges . . . and let me tell you: there wasn’t enough rubbing alcohol in the entire state of Alabama to get rid of that Fray Check after it dried. So I cut the “tails” off and added new ones, attaching them with more black French knots to make it look like it was part of the plan from the Very Beginning, you know.

Communion7f

And eventually Communion 7 is finished (if you don’t count that there’s no way to hang it and no label) (yet). (I’ll get around to that, but right now 7 and I, we need a little space.)

Communion7j

[ ::: ]

Jeanne Hewell-Chambers figures that sometimes it’s not (just) the end product that resembles a conversation with Nancy, but the process itself.

I’ll never understand why

August 25, 2013 / jeanne / 0 Comments

Communion3h

Communion 3
12.5″ x 10.5″

Communion3b

Communion 3 with an admirer (who happens to be my grandcat)

Communion3d

Thank you for loving Nancy, Andy says to me. It’s easy to love Nancy, I tell him. (Because it is.) Not for everybody, he says. And all I can do is shake my head in dismay.

communion

August 19, 2013 / jeanne / 10 Comments

Communion001

About three weeks ago, I picked up 503 new drawings by Nancy. I am thrilled because for the first time, she’s using multiple colors

Communion004

making deliberate choices

Communion005

filling the page with what might look like frenzy and chaos to some, looks more like joy and freedom to me.

Communion1aa

Because I can’t begin to imagine how long it would take me to stitch all that joy and freedom, I’ve decided to create a response to each piece, stitching a visual representation of what a conversation with Nancy looks like. (When it happens, that is, cause she’s pretty much non-verbal.) (But when she does engage, let me tell you: it’s a riot of color and a romp of fun and a caper down a path you’d love to go down again and again and again.)

Communion1bb