This month let's stand up to bullies, and sew ...

Feel free to print and enjoy!!

Americans, at our best, stand up to bullies and 
fight those who seek to demean and degrade others.

Cory Booker

This month's #virginiacreates calendar reflects my renewed interest in embroidery.  During these unnerving times in our country I have felt a strong pull to my needles and thread.  I feel there are many reasons why I feel this need to stitch.  Sewing suggests mending, pulling pieces together that have been torn apart.  I feel that our country is being torn apart.

"The act of sewing is a process of emotional repair. - Louise Bourgeois"

Louise Bourgeois, used sewing in much of her work. She has eloquently explained what sewing meant to her and her work.  Many of her words speak to my current obsession with sewing so  I have sprinkled some of her quotes throughout this post.

“I always had the fear of being separated and abandoned. 

The sewing is my attempt to keep things together and make things whole.”— Louise Bourgeois

These past months I have found myself embroidering on both fabric and paper.  

I have been embroidering affirmations onto a vintage slip as part of my 'slip' series.  

And while I was on retreat in San Gimignano I created a series of mixed media collages that all contained some sewn/embroidered element.

When I was growing up all the women in my house used needles. I have always had a fascination with the magic power of the needle. The needle is used to repair the damage. — Louise Bourgeois

And in my current series, a protest to what I feel is censorship by the current administration, I am embroidering on vintage photos words that are being removed and discouraged by the government. 

The initial list that I am working from is from an article reposted by the New York Times, March 7, 2025.

These Words Are Disappearing

 in the New Trump Administration

"As President Trump seeks to purge the federal government of “woke” initiatives, agencies have flagged hundreds of words to limit or avoid, according to a compilation of government documents."

There are around 196 words on that list.  Unfortunately as I do more researching there seems to be more removed words in different government agencies, so I am not sure how many photos I will be embroidering.  

For you, a reading from John O'Donohue ...

"For the Artist at the Start of Day" 

by John O'Donohue 

May morning be astir with the harvest of night;

Your mind quickening to the eros of a new question,

Your eyes seduced by some unintended glimpse

That cut right through the surface to a source.

May this be a morning of innocent beginning,

When the gift within you slips clear

Of the sticky web of the personal

With its hurt and its hauntings,

And fixed fortress corners,

A Morning when you become a pure vessel

For what wants to ascend from silence,

May your imagination know

The grace of perfect danger,

To reach beyond imitation,

And the wheel of repetition,

Deep into the call of all

The unfinished and unsolved

Until the veil of the unknown yields

And something original begins

To stir toward your senses

And grow stronger in your heart

In order to come to birth

In a clean line of form,

That claims from time

A rhythm not yet heard,

That calls space to

A different shape.

May it be its own force field

And dwell uniquely

Between the heart and the light

To surprise the hungry eye

By how deftly it fits

About its secret loss.


"For the Artist at the Start of Day" 

by John O'Donohue, 

from To Bless the Space Between Us: A Book of Blessings (Doubleday, 2008).

There were so many inspiring elements my artist’s retreat in San Gimignano which I hope to incorporate into my everyday. One I hope to continue is starting the day with an inspiration poem, blessing, prayer or prose.

Michael Dowling always seems to know what to read to his groups. This was true in all the classes that I’ve taken with him, and so true during this retreat. We, as an artist community, would meet every morning with a reading and conversation, an ideal way to start a day of creating.  One author that Michael shares often is John O'Donohue. I have found his words very inspiring.

Many times I would transcribe the reading in my sketchbook as I found that writing the words out helped me to really understand ideas and such.

I hope to do more inspiring morning reading and wish to share some here.  And more of the magic that I discovered on my retreat to come!!! 

peace