Reformation: A new artwork series
Reformation #1
If you’ve been following my life through Facebook this past year you likely know that, in addition to the generalized concerns about politics and pandemic, my husband Dan and I have been dealing with the aftermath of his nearly fatal car accident on June 2, 2020. If that news escaped you and you want to learn more of our story you can refer to Dan’s Caring Bridge site that I started last summer (https://www.caringbridge.org/visit/danryancollegepark). Stated simply, my priorities shifted during the months Dan was hospitalized and the months of PT, OT, and several more “T”s that followed. The studio was abandoned and I did no art work.
In mid-winter I began tinkering a bit in the studio, trying to work in a bit of art time around a very full schedule of medical and therapy appointments. But, it wasn’t until April that Dan’s recovery had progressed to a point where I was able to begin to venture back to the studio in any serious way. Once there I found myself lacking in every way. I had no stamina, concentration, or inspiration, so I did what I usually do in such situations: I cleaned, put away, organized and rearranged.
In the midst of the cleaning I attacked the storage closed that holds all of my complete work. As I unrolled quilts to give them a good airing out I began thinking about the future of some of the older work. Some hadn’t been exhibited, but some had. Obviously, none of it had sold. Was it going to? Did I want to hang any of it? What if something happened to me; would anybody want this stuff?
That’s when I started wondering if I might be brave enough to “kill my darlings.” That’s a writer’s term for objectively editing your writing and letting go of words, paragraph, scenes, characters, even story lines that you might love but which don’t really don’t belong, are overused, cliche, whatever. In other words, it’s the writing that you, the author love, for reasons that are in no way apparent to the reader. I’m not entirely sure all of these pieces my artwork were “darlings,” but they weren’t exactly dogs either. Could I really cut up a finished work of art or slather it with paint?
The answer turned out to be, “Yes, I can,” and I did.
At first I thought I was just playing around, trying to jumpstart my creative engine with something radical; at least it was radical for me. As is most often my experience, I began to see this little play project as something with far deeper meaning. I gradually began looking at it as a metaphor for what I was going through in my life. Dan’s recovery has been altogether miraculous, but his accident has altered our lives and our expectations about the future. He continues to recover and we’re optimistic about the future, but it’s also true that the future will likely be different from what we used to imagine. Stated another way, some of our long-held expectations might need to be rethought, just like I was rethinking that older artwork.
“Reformation: the act or process of improving something or someone by removing or correcting faults, problems, etc.”
As this idea of rethinking and revising percolated in my brain I started gravitating toward the word, “reformation”. I wasn’t thinking of the 16th century Protestant Reformation or creating an homage to Martin Luther. I was thinking of the word as “re-formed” or “formed again”.
I nominated 8-9 of my older art quilts to be my starting point and then chose 3 to cut up to begin the experiment. Today, 3 months later, the first 9 works in my new Reformation series are making their online debut.
You can see the new pieces in Art Quilt section of my online portfolio or by going directly to the Reformation page.
You can also read this blog post about The making of Reformation #1 - #9.