Now Hanging in our Dojo

We have a new design element in our dojo. The area under the clock in the photo above houses some old fire hose from back when our building was an active post office. We have hidden the area with some simple curtains for years.

We now have an 'aikido appropriate' covering for the area. Thanks to the talents of Shawn Birmingham who took a wonderful photo last winter of one of our members rolling out of a throw; and Julie Brandon of Red Dog Enterprises who scanned the photo onto cotton for me, I was able to create a custom curtain for the area - a great way to start the New Year!

Intuitive Play

Years ago I took a personality test called Myers-Briggs which confirmed that I am a highly intuitive person. These days as I refine a process that I have for creating art quilts, I fully appreciate and trust the value of this intuition.

In the process that I am refining, construction begins with a blank piece of muslin tacked up on my design wall. Maggie McNabb writes in her book, Design by Nature: Using Universal Forms and Principles in Design (Voices That Matter), that emptiness gives you a point from which to start from. As I begin to fill in my muslin, I use a 'map' that I create by abstracting from a photo that I have been attracted to.

Portion of map from Illuminated Albizia

I begin to fill in parts of the muslin with fabric, following the rough guidelines of my maps.

Early stage of Illuminated Albizia

 While intuitive play is somewhat constrained at this point by my map, I always grant myself the option to not follow my map. Contrary to some other approaches that use a guide from a photograph as a strict diagram for their art quilt, my map marks a general direction to my goal.

 Once the muslin is filled with fabric, the stitching part of my process begins. This is where intuition  plays a major role. It is in the thread painting and quilting that my art work really comes to life.

Winter Morn prior to quilting

As I quilt each portion of a project, I allow my intuition to guide me. I actually create a 'sample sandwich' with pieces of fabric from the art work that I test various quilting ideas upon. This give me a general idea of how the quilting of a particular area like the mountains or a tree might look.

Sample of quilting effects

As I actually quilt my piece though, I really allow the fabric to 'speak' and guide me. This is often the most exciting part of my process. In Winter Morn, for example, I had a general idea of how to approach quilting the river. I started according to plan but soon was listening to the fabric and trusting my intuition. Quite honestly, when I completed the section, I wasn't 100% certain of what I had done. It wasn't until I viewed my piece from a distance that I realized my intuition had transformed the river from a quiet stream into a more interesting element - a dynamic flow rounding a bend.

I have taken a number of design classes with Dena Crain. An observation that shows up repeatedly in classes is the recognition that there is a point where you, the artist, surrender to the piece you are creating. If you allow that to happen, the piece will show you what needs to happen next. This is where intuition rules the day. When this occurs in the creative process, it reminds me of those perfect moments on the mat in my art of aikido where you totally blend with your partner and joy results.

In reality, it is this blending or dance that happens in all those moments in life where we are happiest and most fulfilled. The founder of aikido, Morihei Ueshiba, expressed it best:

To be one with the universe.

While I was heavily involved in mind/body work with Thomas Crum, a favorite colleague of mine was Judy Ringer. She trained with us at Aiki Works, Inc. and the two of us have continued a natural friendship through the years. Judy now has a highly successful training company of her own and maintains a blog.

I always enjoy her posts and the latest post is one that I am sure we can all identify with - a difficult customer service call. Judy describes her process of starting to lose her patience (and center) and then having an aha moment where she regains her balance and the words flow to dissipate the unpleasantness of the call.

There were several inspirational quotes in Judy's post from the art of aikido, which we both study, and related material. I thought I would leave you with them and hope they will inspire you to check out Judy's tale:

All things change when we do.
– Kukei, Eighth-Century Zen Master

To injure an opponent is to injure yourself. 
To control aggression without inflicting injury is the Art of Peace.

– Morihei Ueshiba, O Sensei, Founder of Aikido

Aikido masters say that opposing an attack directly feeds it. You may stop the other person temporarily, but you don’t stop his or her intention to attack.

— Andy Bryner and Dawna Markova, Ph.D., An Unused Intelligenc

In The Dance of Connection, author Harriet Lerner writes that in difficult conversations the task is not to “be yourself” but to “choose your self.”

So you think your life is complicated?

It is holiday time and for many of us, the holidays mean we have more than our usual list of things to accomplish. When you begin to experience a slight feeling of overwhelm, it always helps to develop some perspective.

In aikido, we have a simple ki exercise that we do to develop our awareness of balance. It is called, ude furi undo. It is a simple turn with arms extended so you are facing 180 degrees from where you started. We often do a series of turns back and forth as part of our warm-up exercises at the start of a class. To complicate matters, the instructor can call for one turn at a time or two or three turns. The more turns, the more the challenge to maintain balance. My friend, Tom Crum, often uses this exercise in workshops. People find the initial exercise of one turn a bit challenging. Once we ask them to do two, three, four turns, and then return to one turn, they find one turn easy. Tom's usually then offers a metaphor for life. If you think your life is complicated, take on something bigger like world hunger, your issues will seem much smaller.

In a similar vein, if you are experiencing the feeling of overwhelm with the holiday, I thought you would enjoy a recent post by a friend of mine,  Dena Crain. She is a wonderful art quilter and instructor who happens to live in Kenya. In the post, Dena describes a recent day in her life. And, she also offers a similar metaphor to Tom's in her description. Enjoy!

PS. Dena has a great design class, Goodbye to the Grid, starting in late January on Quilt University. I have taken it twice and am planning to take it again. She is a wonderfully challenging teacher who really makes you stretch!

An Aikido Story for You

I have mentioned a number of times in this blog that I practice and teach the art of aikido. It continues to be an important part of my life. The premise of aikido is to de-escalate conflict situations and the mind/body calmness needed for this applies equally well in physical and non-physical conflict situaitons.

One of the early American practitioners was a man named Terry Dobson. I never had the honor of meeting him. Terry studied in Japan with the founder of Aikido, Morihei Ueshiba, and wrote one of the basic aikido texts on conflict resolution when he returned to the U.S.

He is famous for a story he wrote of his early training days in Japan and a life-changing encounter he had on a train. I found a copy of the story on this blog and hope you will check it out. It is a great reminder of the options we have in life if we take the time to center and consider.

Words of Inspiration

I have been practicing the art of aikido for more than 25 years. It is an integral part of my life and has definitely shaped who I am. The founder of aikido, Morihei Ueshiba, sought to find a martial art that respected life and followed basic principles that honored and encouraged harmony in the universe.

I have had a miniature book, The Art of Peace, by my bedside for as long as I remember. It contains thoughts of Ueshiba, translated by John Stevens.

Here are two quotes that I find inspiring:

Your heart is full of fertile seeds, waiting to sprout. Just as a lotus flower springs from the mire to bloom splendidly, the interaction of the comic breath causes the flower of the spirit to bloom and bear fruit in this world.

Do not fail to learn from the pure voice of an ever-flowing mountain stream splashing over the rocks.

Have a wonderful day!

Giving Value in 2011

My travels of the past weeks have meant not sewing and not teaching aikido. These absences happen from time to time because travels are part of my life. I am always a bit hesitant when I return to resume teaching.

At this point I have been teaching almost 25 years. Our group is blessed with a great core of instructors who can teach as well as me and, at this point, are probably better able to take physical falls, etc. of our art. (I turn 63 next month.) It is a favorite mind game of mine while I am gone to ask if now is the time to retire....but then I return and stand in front of the class. I am lucky as there is always a great group of students. They are inevitably skilled for their rank (due to the high quality of instruction in our dojo) and eager to learn. And, I am reminded of why I teach.

Saturday morning was a great example. I overheard two high ranking students discussing an issue in technique before class started. It became the basis for the second half of our class. As the group practiced, my experience allowed me to offer suggestions to all on how to tweak their throws. They expressed appreciation. I left the dojo feeling that my presence contributed to their learning. And, as a result, I felt great the rest of the day.

Teaching is something I love and continue to do after all these years. Why? Because I can give value.

Anytime in life that we can give value to someone, we receive as much, if not more, in return. This is true in any activity. I find that it is as true in my fiber art as in my aikido. When I feel that there is value in what I am creating, that I know it will lift someone's feeling, perhaps inspire action, then I feel great.

Garden of Dreams, 2008

For all of you, I wish in 2011 that you may appreciate the value you are giving to others in their lives through your art, your work, your many activities, and I hope that you will carry the joy of that feeling with you throughout the year.

Sewing Exercises for the Wrist with Judy Warner

Here is another short video with some different stretching exercises for your wrists. They come from the art of aikido. I think you will find that not only will these increase flexibility in your wrists but also help to calm your mind and body. Be sure as you try them to remember to breathe, we often hold our breaths when we are learning something new.

Latest Art Quilt - Center

I  have heard that art quilts have a mind of their own and can take over their destiny at some point. This is certainly true of my latest piece, Center.

The peacock feather came from a fan I received a few years ago as a gift in India. The background is a hand-knit square I made  and wanted to experiment with.  I used some soluble stabilizer to create the inner border (I will post detail on that on Friday.).

At that point I considered submitting the piece for a SAQA exhibit but there was size constraint of an 8 inch square. Center did not want to be an 8 inche square. I put it in a drawer for a bit but it kept calling out for more. Hence, the blue border.

And so, Center became my piece for the 3 Creative Studios Quilt Challenge 2010. The word for the July/August challenge was reflection. Center is reflective for me. In the art of aikido that I practice, we speak of having 'one point', a mind/body state of calmness and relaxation. Reflection and meditation contribute to our development of one point. The 'eye' of the peacock feather reminds me of one point.

Quilts are Everywhere

I spent four days last week at Rowan University in Glassboro, NJ at a Summer Camp for aikido practitioners. I had little free time for sketching, etc. related to my quilt art but my mind was never far from my quilt projects.

There was a quiet treed place near the gym where I would sit between classes. The last morning as I was missing my Bernina, I studied the building across from where I was sitting. I spied a potential quilt pattern in the design. Soon I was looking at all the surrounding buildings for similar patterns. It goes to prove that you can find ideas anywhere if you look with the eyes of a quilter.

Dorm at Rowan University. Can you see the pattern?