“I bead because I have to be! – Moon Rises Over Thundercloud”

In the healing practice that I have with my healing partners, Renaissance of the Heart, we teach our clients “to be”, rather than “to do”. What we’re talking about is being with the flow or in a state of surrender to what is rather than trying to dictate how a particular outcome should be. We feel that when we’re in alignment with the Universe, then wonderful things can happen,often far beyond one’s wildest imagination. It’s in this place of surrender (and I use the word “place” for lack of a better term), that my best art flows from me.

I would make art if I were stranded on a desert island, making do with whatever was around me. However, I have the luxury of a well stocked studio and the Internet to bring me treasures from all over the world if my local bead store doesn’t have exactly what I’m looking for. I think about how different cultures would have to drill stones, pierce shells, or pour molten metal into tiny molds, and I feel pretty lucky about the vast array of choices that I have before me.

So surrounded with a wealth of materials, I can create when the Muse offers me an idea. This small piece, “The Moon Rises Over Thundercloud”, (9.5″W x 14.5″ total height, or 24 cm wide x 37 cm tall) was originally begun in 1982. It was based on a dream I had of a Thunderbird image dancing before a mountain. As its feather tips brushed the ground, lightning sparks would burst from the edges which would sparkle and shine. (see the detail photo below). The dream was so vivid that I had to give the piece life, so out came the fabric, floss and frou-four of my trade.

The next morning, I began cutting out what I has seen and embroidering the Thunderbird. A golden path leads back towards a pass into the mountain where the creature lives most of the time. I added some beads and fringe, and felt the piece was completed. However, in 1997, I happened to pull it out again. My work had become so much more intensely beaded by that time, that this piece, while small, was virtually naked as far as what it contained. I try to give each piece my best efforts, no matter what the size, and so many, many more layers were added. Thundercloud’s world became a faceted wonder of shine and light. Here was now a place where it was worthy of his ceremonial dances to bring rain to a parched earth.

So when the work is going well because I’ve quit trying to impose my will on it, I move into a state of oneness with the piece. It breathes into me, and I into it, and the work becomes effortless. Being in “the Zone” is an easy technique to teach, but learning to allow youself to remain there, and not “do” is the hard part. That’s a lesson that I’m practicing daily, not only with my art but also with my spiritual path.

Have you had a dream or a moment in time that you knew had to be interpreted in your artistic medium? Why not tell us about it, for what inspires one can work its magic in others.

To see more of my art work, please visit my web site at www.fiberfantasies.com .

Leave a Reply