How do I create a 'vessel in which soul-making takes place'?
Perhaps I need to
pause and reflect;
open myself to new experiences;
become enthralled with the mundane -
ants scurrying, leaves dropping, birds singing, flowers opening.
Perhaps I need to create a vessel which is porous
to allow experiences to flow through;
to encourage me hold things and places and ideas lightly;
to make way for the new and different.
Perhaps I need to create a vessel with no lid
to receive and to liberate;
to invite inspection;
to develop a sense of openness.
Perhaps I need to create a vessel only to break it -
to see the beauty in recreation;
to celebrate the cracks and chips;
to allow myself to be human.

Sometimes

Sometimes things don't go, after all,
from bad to worse. Some years, muscadel
faces down frost; green thrives; the crops don't fail;
sometimes a man aims high, and all goes well.


A people sometimes will step back from war;
elect an honest man; decide they care
enough, that they cant leave some stranger poor.
Some men become what they were born for.


Sometimes our best efforts do not go
amiss; sometimes we do as we meant to.
The sun will sometimes melt a field of sorrow
that seemed to be frozen: may it happen for you.

by Sheenagh Pugh

This art installation got me thinking ...
I wonder if art and craft should be left alone to speak for itself.
We expend so much energy and so many words
justifying and explaining and critiquing
that we forget to pause -
and listen -
to what a work of art has to say;
and we forget to pause -
and reflect -
on how a work of art has transformed us.
Let's put away our jargon and our cliches and our buzzwords and -
listen.

Is art about pushing boundaries,
thinking laterally,
extending possibility?
Is art about storytelling,
revealing the narrative of one's life?
Is art a parable,
a metaphor,
a challenge?
Is art an exploration
of the minutiae of every day life?