Colour and beauty

I’m experimenting with shorter more frequent posts to substack in an effort to make these feel easy and fun, instead of another thing on the to do list. I’m learning so much about being compassionate with my creative self, one step at a time, appreciating how to bring more ease and pleasure in to replace the old ingrained patterns of ‘shoulds’ and ‘must dos’.

I’ve realized if I approach these posts like a chat with friends, the words flow along as they would in an old fashioned letter - remember those things we used to write on paper with fountain pens and put them in an envelope, walk to the mailbox and send them on their way!! I used to be a big letter writer, by hand with a fountain pen yet, now there are just a few people I will send real mail to one of them being my cousin in England who is likely the only person I know who has no computer or cell phone.

I’m certainly feeling the surge of early Spring energy as are the rooted ones around me, flourishing in the warmer air, reaching up to the blue skies, soaking in the rainbow-making showers. A great nourishmenet to the creative spirit reminding me yet again that the wheel turns and the cycles of the seasons move through me as they move through the living world around me. As I write I’m looking out at fruit trees in bloom and a large arbutus completely veiled in flowers, I bet the bees are having a buzzing good time over there.

I am so fortunate to live where I can find farm grown flowers on the stands along the road. Recent treasures included sweet scented traditional bright yellow trumpet daffodils, gorgeous yellow/orange and white/cream double daffodils, dramatic tulips opening to reveal the deep internal drama of their black geometric patterns and bright yellow pollen triple stamen, and a garden bouquet of narcissus, tulips and spring snowflake flowers.

In the forest the nettles have grown tall, the maple flowers are now shaded by their leaves, the green tips on fir and cedar branches are enticingly bright making me wish I was a forager who would be welcoming their fresh new flavour on my taste buds. This morning I noticed the first Rufous humming bird at the feeder, always a sign Spring is here. These fiesty little birds travel 4,000 miles from their wintering grounds in Mexico to breed in Alaska in summer. They stop off here for about two weeks on their way, and claim the territory as their own fighting off the Anna’s who’ve been here all winter. The swallows are back swooping into the shed roof in search of nesting places.

This month’s full pink moon rose bright peering through the treeline below me from a deep blue darkened sky. Why pink you wonder as you look at a moon the same colour as any other. According to the old Farmer’s Almanac the moon was named for the pink phlox flowering in April, drawn from Native North American culture. Other cultures refer to this moon as the sprouting grass moon, the egg moon, and the fish moon.

With all this beauty around me I’ve been creating some of my own. Last week I took my first completed commission piece to Victoria and delivered it to a very happy recipient. Named ‘Unknown Heart’ this piece carries excerpts from the poetry of the recipient. We were blessed with a lovely sunny day and spent some time enjoying the delicious seafood offerings at Finest at Sea in James Bay during her lunch hour from work.

With number one complete I started work on the second commission, designing the base from the collection of eco-dyed and printed fabrics I’ve been creating over the last few months. This piece is for a Traditional Chinese Medicine clinic who generously offered herbs from their apothecary for me to use on the piece.

The work I’m doing with Jill Margo continues to be transformative in shifting how I describe my approach to creative practice. Last week Jill encouraged me to find words that really capture the intent I spoke about, of making art because it deepens my relationship with the living world and expressing that relationship in tactile beauty. I am cultivating three areas of my practice this spring one with a focus on developing new concepts in my fibre art, one for commissioned textile hangings, and one to support me in creative citizenship in my community and region. I have created spell tins for each of these to remind me of my deeper intention. These little tins are containers for my fountain pen ink cartridges and I knew one day they’d come in handy for something. They contain items that represent my core desired engagement for each cultivation, treasures I’ve collected that enliven my practice.

It has been such a hard two weeks in the world of power hungry, fear driven ambition that takes up so much space, I draw great comfort in these practices as they reciprocate with beauty and light.

With gratitude to the Hul'q'umi'num and SENĆOŦEN speaking people of the Cowichan tribes on whose unceded traditional lands I live.

With gratitude to Salt Spring Arts for their generous support of my practice.