OCTOBER 2020 NEWSLETTER: 'MAKING' My Way

OCTOBER 2020 NEWSLETTER: 'MAKING' My Way

Transformation definitely builds our creativity. We are all launching into Fall  with various emotions about a summer and so many people lost to Covid. The impact of continuing natural disasters are exhausted all of us. It is up-close and personal for me and hundreds of others in my community in Southern Oregon.

I have just lost my home, studio and lifetime of creative work to the raging fire on Sept 8th ....10 min. to go, no time to even grab one of those willow chairs I made this summer. In the ache that ripples out from that moment, grieving the loss is bringing a much deeper appreciation, at my core, for the grounding of MAKING. I know 'I will MAKE my way through this' as I process and heal.  It is what I have always done, it is my best medicine. I need to rise in this. I need to hold the shards collected from the ash, and create beauty at a whole new level. 

I am so deeply grateful to be the beneficiary of a gofundme where so many of you have shared to help me re-build. Thank you for helping me look forward to the future. YOU ALL inspire me to share in Newsletters & Blogs, so that is where I can start.  I look forward to coming together again, out there in the future.....to celebrate our friendships and appreciate the magic in our love of MAKING. 

WE ALL RISE TOGETHER...if we haven't learned this by now...I don't know what it will take.  Diane

                                  Rising up.......Designing at the Edge-

What I do have, are precious photos- (definitely photograph your work). Although I am painfully aware of the difference between seeing the work and touching the work, I am appreciating the digital image more than ever now. There are themes  in my work that will move me along my path forward. I have been drawn to ladders since childhood..climbing them and making them. I love the image and metaphor of rising/going forward now. What are the themes in your work?

 MAKING has always been my way in and forward. Earlier in my life, as a single parent, my children and I survived a flood that took our home, belongings and car.... I worked my way back to a healthy, grounded life then by working with the nightmares that followed, and creating this piece below. I shared more about this 24" 'garment/shelter' in an earlier blog. The ladder inside the garment gave me (the small figure inside) a way up and back into life then. This piece will always be a powerful reminder that going forward is a courageous choice we can make. 

   

                                                - MAKING BEAUTY-

Some of you know my son, Miles Frode. A maker of beauty, he is a poet/wordsmith, and a passionate painter. Out of his many poems I have video-taped, he shares this one with us: Ode to a Poem. It feels particularly poignant now, as he and I are both rebuilding our creative lives here in SO Oregon. For more info. about Miles and his work, see his website and gofundme. For advanced notice on the release of his poetry book, email him at: milesfrode@gmail.com

" How many hands can lay across a broken bow? How may walks can be taken before the walk takes us ever inwards."    excerpt from Ode to a Poem by Miles Frode

                                            Ending with a Beginning-

In the days before the fire, I was working on a pieced fabric blog inspired by the blue slate patio I had just finished. Laying the fabric bits on the stones for the 'before' shot was all the further it went....and now, the patio stones are an island in the chaos of debris. I can't look away...I am looking forward. 

                                             What are the stories your work can tell?   Diane

 

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1 comment

Thank you for sharing your son and showing a Mother’s love for her son.

Love and Blessings to Both of You,
a

ashley reeder

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