To Quiet My Heart

When creating artwork, more often than not I attempt to put across a certain feel and more often than not, I get close but come up short. But every once in a blue moon it works the other way around. I finish a piece of art and upon finishing realize the work carries a thought or emotion I didn’t knowingly attempt to put into it.

Walking softly, not urgent, but knowing.
To move quietly but still be heard and seen because it matters that you are where you are.
To be present in your surroundings.
To hold onto the layers and textures of living.
Not making grand entrances or racing for an end goal.
It’s not about fancy, it’s not about fast but it is about moving.
And sometimes the important way to move is
subtle
gentle
quiet
and knowing.

If any picture can convey how I wish to exist while on this land this piece of artwork is the one right now. But this year I don’t know how to go about doing so. With the land in such a state of drought every move with the flock feels like a damaging one. We are urgent feeling about grass and moisture. I am more unknowing about it all than ever before. I wonder if the land just needs us to disappear so it may have time to adjust and if that is the case I feel pain for not being able to give that. Nothing about this is quiet to the mind and heart.

I know now that I was reaching to create a scene that would quiet my heart and still the racing thoughts of doubt. I needed to make this piece of artwork even though I felt little sense of that when I started out with it.

“Moving On”
28” x 12”
Made with wool, by hand.
I have not priced this piece yet. It’s going to hang nearby for the immediate future, then I’ll ready it for sale , perhaps frame it, and take it to the few trade shows I’ll be attending. It’s a lovely one to see in person.

2 thoughts on “To Quiet My Heart”

  1. That is a beautiful piece.
    Sorry you are in a drought. Here in Upstate New York, it is quite wet. I was talking to our local Soil and Water Conservation representative the other day, and he said that with climate change, our area is getting wetter and wetter. This is causing increased problems with unwanted plants like rushes, sedge and buttercup appearing in the pastures. I don’t know what the solution is, but am trying to find it.

    1. Thank you for the compliment on the piece of artwork. One long term prediction for the prairies is drier and hotter. It does make us think harder about how we will need to adjust for the sake of the prairie.

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