by WENDELL BERRY
Abandon to the process
I am a textile artist,
exploring my life through figurative sculpture (which I call doll making).
When I am surrounded by textiles and tools,
immersed in patterns and ideas,
I lose all sense of my individuality and accept their invitation to create intuitively.
I seek the promise they hold.
I abandon myself to the process.
For me, this is the 'abandoning' akin to love and sleep.
Each figure reflects a part of me
and becomes a part of my story as I become a part of theirs.
I submit wholeheartedly to this process;
trust its outcomes and revelations;
encounter wisdom and LOVE.
These are not fine works of art.
They are the heartfelt work of a soul.
My soul.
One I stuffed, the other is flat.
The stuffed figure is stitching the flat figure.
There is a single thread going from the stuffed doll's heart
to the heart of the flat figure:
one doll is tending to the heartfelt work of another.