i ching

plant pigment dyed, earth mineral plant based acrylic paint on organic linen collage on wood panel

25 × 19 (floater framed)

TODAY, ANOTHER UNIVERSE

by Jane Hirshfield

The arborist has determined:

senescence      beetles      canker

quickened by drought

                           but in any case

not prunable   not treatable   not to be propped.

And so.

The branch from which the sharp-shinned hawks and their mate-cries.

The trunk where the ant.

The red squirrels’ eighty-foot playground.

The bark   cambium   pine-sap   cluster of needles.

The Japanese patterns      the ink-net.

The dapple on certain fish.

Today, for some, a universe will vanish.

First noisily,

then just another silence.

The silence of after, once the theater has emptied.

Of bewilderment after the glacier,

the species, the star.

Something else, in the scale of quickening things,

will replace it,

this hole of light in the light, the puzzled birds swerving around it.

Inspiration arrives in many forms — an inner or outer landscape, a poem that shifts my perspective, words and symbols deeply felt. Wherever the muse appears, working with natural dyes, earth minerals and textiles is a joy-making process.

Sewing is my first love, but collage opened a floodgate. It offers a freedom to experiment with shape and scale that sewing doesn’t readily allow. I love both: the clean closed seam and the raw cut edge — each a metaphor for life. Moving between them keeps my creative center alive.

The collages begin with natural dyed textiles. The hand dyed fabrics are then painted with pigments and oxides I hand-blend into plant-based acrylic, creating bespoke colors. I build up multiple layers to create desired opacity and depth of color on flax linen, organic cotton and/or hemp, then hand-cut the dried forms and collage them onto wooden panels using natural adhesives. A coat of plant-based varnish finishes the work — framed and ready to hang.

note: please hang away from direct exposure to harsh light (natural/artificial) as well as direct heat source and areas of high moisture.

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