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Dream Weaver–The Guide

07 Sunday Jun 2020

Posted by marciagphoto in Applique, Mixed Media

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I was taking a class on dream interpretation.  

Every morning I would wake-up and write what I remembered.  One night my dreams moved like a roller coaster ride—up and down, around and around, in and out.  Nothing made sense and then it stopped for just a split second and there she was siting behind a tree stump that wasn’t made of wood.  Opal clear water flowed out of the center of the stump and she was petting the head of a dragon made up of the colors of blue, green and purple.  She looked at me. Suddenly, she was gone and the roller coaster ride of dreams continued.  I spent a lot of time looking up what this meant.  I realized that the tree stump was petrified wood.  I also knew that I needed to do a quilt on her and the dragon.  I decided to add a background of red wood trees, used silk ribbon for the leaves, and fabric paint. The tree stump is appliquéd with hand died cotton fabric.   The water and dragon was a challenge though.  The water in the dream was crystal clear with sparkles of colored light—like an opal I once saw.  I went to a quilt show with a friend in San José, California and found this yarn.  I also found a book on Chinese knotting.  So I made the dragon by knotting the yarn and in turn it also became the water.  I added a pearl and stone beads to represent the chakras.  The quilting around the woman, dragon and tree stump is free form and done by hand.  It begins in the dragon’s mouth.  I began the quilt in Northern California and completed it in Illinois. (19.5 x 28.5 inches, 1999-2001)

Now it’s 2020 and we are boiling over with frustration from a pandemic and decades of racism and the lives that this has taken from our communities. I look at this quilt that represents an inner me…who I am. I look at the dragon and what it represents…the power within. I feel lost, what more can I, a white woman, do to help our communities and the deep pain and fear that many of my friends feel that racism causes. I too sometimes feel this fear for my husband a man born in Costa Rica. I have seen and yes felt the racism as a woman who is in a mixed racial marriage. I have also felt the love in a multi-cultured community. That love is more powerful than any racial hatred. I have seen this in the past 4 years and I see this now as communities, mine included, work together to find answers and solutions to a horrible problem that has festered for too long.

I might not at this moment be able to do more than write poems, work with a group of beautiful women in a theatre group thru zoom on these times, and take photographs of my life in lockdown in France but I know that it’s not just the big actions that count in making this world a better place for all. It’s the small actions too for they build and spread and help in creating a better place for all.

That’s who I am within, that’s the dragon power that resides in me.

“There are no great things, only small things with great love.” Mother Teresa

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La Iglesia

12 Wednesday Jul 2017

Posted by marciagphoto in Applique

≈ 2 Comments

LaIglesia13sq adj

 La Iglesia (The Church)  13 sq inches mounted on canvas and framed

I love working with appliqué. It gives you so much more freedom with form. The inspiration for this piece came from my personal history. I was born and raised in San Diego and in Old Town San Diego there was a wonderful plaza call Bazaar del Mundo. It was built like a Spanish home with the rooms all opening up into a central plaza. You could walk from room to room (or store to store) thru a covered walk way. There where cages with birds and the garden and restaurant in the center.   A friend of mine managed a shop there and later the whole plaza. The owner would bring in cultural events. Bazaar del Mundo became an important part of what San Diego was about. And then, after 35 years it was gone (or forced to move). Old Town San Diego is part of the park services and they allow anyone with the highest bid to take over a lease. A big company came in and out bid the woman who had leased this area for 35 years. People protested but there was nothing that could be done. She moved to a different location and now the area is full of stores that can be found anywhere–nothing unique, no culture. Actually Old Town San Diego has become an extension of a touristy concept of Tijuana with bad restaurants (the good ones don’t seem to last) and colorful junk for sale. Before this all happened I bought a ceramic piece from Mexico and the shopping bag had a design similar to the one on this quilt.

LaIglesia2x4 detail

It’s based on Mexican Folk Art of ceramic churches. The flowers are based on popular tissue paper flowers that you can find in Mexico. The pattern for the door is from a church door that I took a photo of in France.

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