The Lives They Loved

I posted this elsewhere but will make it my last here in 2013

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The Lives They Loved

The NY Sunday Times magazine runs a feature at the end of each year called "The Lives They Loved". If you go there prepare to lose a lot of time and be deeply moved.

 I don't know if my submittal made the cut, they must receive thousands, but here is what I sent. It was very hard to keep it to the two hundred word limit.

"Jimmy made me laugh and I'm a tough comedy customer.

From the first day we met his mission was to make me happy, to hear me laugh. He wasn't a joke teller – it was all lightning wit and the gift of knowing just which funny bone to tickle. He would whisper something bawdy in my ear just to see me pretend to be a prude all the while peeing myself with laughter.

People were always glad to see or hear from him because they knew that at some point in the conversation there would be genuine laughter. He was a construction superintendent, the guy

 who is caught between management and labor and he always took pride in his ability to bring everyone around to his way of seeing and doing things. I think they wanted to share in his boundless sense of fun and good humor.

He was a wonderful father to our sons Colin and Jake and I'm so glad that he passed on his amazing gift of laughter to them both. Now, whenever I really laugh at something I hear his

 booming laughter in my heart I'm sure that he sent that moment my way with his love."  

Karma VI

Changed my mind about hard mounting this one mostly because I couldn't find the right sized canvas. It's faced and signed and ready to go.
details here.




"Our lives are not our own. We are bound to others, past and present, and by each crime and every kindness, we birth our future.” 

― David Mitchell, Cloud Atlas

Solstice Eve, 2013

Solstice Eve 2012

Hand appliqued and embroidered vintage hand dyed cloth, 14"x20", faced and signed, ready for framing.

 I will be taking silent bids via email (deborah@lacativa.com) until midnight on New Years Eve.

Please put SE BID in the subject line.

The opening bid is $86.47  US. Shipping included.

being bothered

While I was looking for something to face this with I was bothered by something about it and took it back to the sewing chair to study.

 I don't consciously compose my work, I generally select scraps of cloth and just move them around relative to one another until I like what I see.  People find things in my work that I never intended and that's ok.  Early on, I did acknowledge the figure front and center. What bothered me was that it was a solitary figure so I brought some other beings into play.

Much is written about the healing power of making art. I don't know about making any healing art myself but I've recently been given a piece of art that makes me smile every time I look at it.  I think you are really onto something here Bamboota.

the gift

It's no surprise that this holiday season has been very hard for our little family.  Anytime someone says" What do you want for Christmas" our answer is "to turn back the clock and have Jimmy with us again, whole and happy". The best we can do is have a hug and a weep and then get on with life as he would have wanted us to.

After a very bad day yesterday I resolved to do better and started picking at boxes of papers; sorting, saving, discarding. As if the pile next to my bed was not enough, I went to the closet and took down a small box I knew contained old cards, letters and the boys' baby books inside - things I knew would make me smile. At the bottom, I found a another box with a few trinkets and this silver spoon bracelet.  I thought it was lost and gone and told one of my sisters-in-law so just the other day.

I had it made for Jimmy when we first got together. The inscription is "Keep on Trying", the title of a short, sweet love song by Poco that he introduced me to.
 A song about persistence and a belief in the redemptive power of true love.

 He used to wear it all the time but broke it twice at work. Twice repaired, it got relegated to "formal wear" meaning weddings and holidays and hadn't thought about it for years. I thought it was gone forever.

Merry Christmas my darlin'. Thank you.