coal mine canaries

So a few weeks back I was emailing with Lainie of Red Thread Studio about a certain life irony.  This concerns how frequently she's noticed very mindful people who make a point of living healthy lifestyles become ill while many individuals who systematically (and quite deliberately) abuse their bodies and the larger environment appear to stay as healthy as the oft-mentioned horse.  Bear in mind:  the state of the world makes it very clear that any number of horses are far from healthy.  And, also, I said those individuals appear healthy because I personally factor in the condition of one's soul & spirit as well as the physical body.   I should further add for honesty's sake that I've not given a great deal of thought to "the kind of person" who gets sick versus those who appear to stay healthy.  Because, for me, so much of life is about what's going on beyond appearances.  For instance - I may be ill at the moment but I don't actually consider myself unwell or that radically out of balance.  Right now, for my particular body and its ongoing experiences, dis-ease is the balance.  And so it's up to me to change enough of the larger context to facilitate also changing the state of be-ing that IS balanced.

Innways, the point is that during the email convo Lainie referred to people such as myself, who have presented hypersensitivity to the toxic environment and the ridiculously unsustainable nature of dominant culture, as canaries in the coalmine.  I have been thinking about that ever since.  Specifically I have been thinking about how much I relished the idea of working with a pitch-black and clear yellow color palette.  And how appropriate it would be to create a stitched and embellished journal page that held this theme.  For the past number of days I considered how to construct a coalmine.  I settled on the velvet because it absorbs so much, just like the human canaries tend to take-in aspects of their environment that apparently bounce off the surface of others in our species.

The inner circle that is still blank will be filled with embroidered canary feathers.  The second ring will be woven with bias strips of black habotai silk.  Both circles will be beaded; there will also be beads added to the other circle which is currently being constructed of couched silk threads from an unravelling strip of dupioni silk and back-stitched persian yarn. Beyond that circle I plan to weave-in both black and yellow silk and maybe some antique shredding taffeta. Discussion of the symbolism pending actual manifestation of the idea.

This morning I've had quite a difficult time photographing the circle so that it looked like itself.  If entire truth be told, I have actually been far more interested in day dreaming in the sun and, also, keeping track of a house wren that's been strutting from branch to branch in the pokeweed growing on the other side of the desk window.  But I did at last take the velvet outside and experiment.  This was a failure in terms of getting accurate color representation but I do like the way the image above illustrates silk's ability to hold and refract light.

  

This picture comes closest to showing the vivid yellow as it actually looks.  Had a gift certificate at Joggles so I sent for some yellow silk boucle to edge this circle.  I received something other than what I ordered so while I wait for the glitch to be corrected, I'm going to move on to embroidering the feathers.  This circular emblem could be the entranceway to toxic hell or it could be a nest where the coalmine canaries retreat to heal themselves or, at the very least, die in peace among their own kind.   Name your poison, as the saying goes...

Comments

[Nyx]

Lovely! I am looking forward to this project and what you do with yours, you have such a great sense of things.

[Judith]

It is the telling of the story in the context of the stitching that I find so fascinating. I shall follow along with great interest.

[Helene H]

I would never have guessed your subject. Love the contrast between black and acid yellow !