"I don't know."

"You talked about the first principle again, but I still don't know what it is," I said to Suzuki.

"I don't know," he said, "is the first principle."

                                                             Shunryu Suzuki

Not knowing allows you to see the everything around you with new eyes. Everything is full of new possibilities. Not knowing is the beginning of questions. Many years ago, when my son was in college, he wrote:

"Questions necessitate a certain mental position. It is a position of openness and vulnerability. To truly ask a question is to stand receptively before a raw and mysterious world. What, in the end, could be more human than that?"   Albert Z.

When I read this, I wrote it in my journal. I think about the truth of this often. At so many levels, to know is to shut down. In the place of knowing, there is no need for questions. It is a closed place, a safe place, a place where curiosity is marginalized. Questions are the principle act of any new creation, and, in most cases, an answered question simply breeds more questions. What am I doing? Why am I doing it? What do I want it to look like? What colors will I use? Where do I go from here? My initial answer to all of these is "I don't know." It is in this place that magic is real...anything can be.

If you have animals friends, you know that they must be at the center of whatever you are doing. As soon as I had put this square down to take a picture, there was Merlin, one of my three cats. This was taken in April of last year. I was working with a Bali Handpaints fat-quarter bundle called "Rosehips." Over the following two months, I had gotten to this point...

I pulled it out of the closet and decided that this is one of the next projects I want to complete. Where am I going from here? I don't know!

I tried a new focaccia the other day...

The first topping is always lots of garlic and olive oil. To this, I added broccoli, roasted tomatoes, mozzarella and impastata ricotta, and prosciutto. Yum.

Yesterday, I cut out the pieces for the eleven other Retro Razzle flowers, but I ran out of  fabric. I'll pick up some more when I go to the shop to teach tomorrow night.

Rilke and Art

On January 1st, I began reading A Year with Rilke: Daily Readings. Without exception, every reading is thought provoking. Some hit a chord. Some strike very deeply. Here is the reading for February 6th:

Unsayable

"Things are not nearly so comprehensible and sayable as we are generally made to believe. Most experiences are unsayable; they come to fullness in a realm that words do not inhabit. And most unsayable of all are works of art, which- alongside our transient lives- mysteriously endure."

Yesterday, I finished binding my quilt, "Temple Garden," and the weather today granted me permission to photograph it. Last summer, one of my sons was kind enough to install a bar across the top frame of my garage and install quilt hangers on it. This allows me to hang most quilts and photograph in daylight.

This quilt began in a PaintStik class. This was new for me. The teacher had available for my use this rubbing plate. The students were permitted to use her Stiks. I chose metallic gold, silver, and bronze. During those few hours in class, I had completed six of these on black and six more on three shades of grey. One became a pillow, and one became this quilt. All of the rest have been added to my long list of unfinished projects.

Inspiration comes from so many different places. When I had finished the large center square and was contemplating where to go from there, I remembered a book that I had, pulled it off the shelf, and there on the cover was that spark...

This image is found throughout many Native American and Eastern spiritual traditions. There is something about it that promotes centeredness and stability. There are counter dynamic forces: One coaxes you into the center, and another entices you to expand. 

Whenever I ask an artist to create anything for me, I tend to give little or no instructions. I believe in artistic license. I have rarely been disappointed. When I take quilts to Carol (http://www.loracdesignsclh.com/), I let her do her thing...longarm quilting is not my thing. 

Here is the back I chose...

I continue to play around with my "Retro Razzle" quilt. I took one of the twelve completed squares, cut it diagonally in quarters, and placed them on the sides of a foundation pieced flower that reminded me of the "flower power" imagery of the sixties. It seems fitting. So, I think I'm happy with this and now only have to make eleven more...