Purpose

" Art enables us to find ourselves and lose ourselves at the same time"

-Thomas Merton

I've been feeling very unsettled lately, exhausted emotionally and physically.....and unable to string together enough thoughtful words for a blog post last week. I've been delighted to have an invitation to exhibit and hopefully sell my work along side my sister's lovely creations at a Wearable Art fashion show and sale in May in Minnesota. It has given me a purpose for all of my frantic creating, which at some times can seem manic. I can't seem to turn it off. My hands need to be busy creating something all of the time. I carry work with me in the car wherever I go. I can't remember not being this way. Today while I was sewing, I began thinking how, at times, the way I work is similar to how Sarah Winchester built her sprawling San Jose mansion, with workmen building around the clock for 38 years. Her belief was that as long as she continued building, ghosts wouldn't haunt her, and she would continue to live. Sometimes, my continuous activity is like this.....when ghosts haunt me my work gives me a place to quietly hide and contemplate and work things out in my head and my heart. It does make it difficult to hold my hand however, because there is always a needle in it.