A Sneaking Doubt

"Sneaking Doubt"
10cm x 11cm x 11cm, 2007
linen warp; wool, cotton, linen, silk, rayon weft


Inspired by a conversation with the Unimommer. She is one of those sneaking doubts you get that tell you you can't do something, can't be something, have no talent, no originality, no skill. The Sneaking Doubt that is, not the Unimommer. The Unimommer is very supportive!


Sneaky little thing... I tried photographing her several times since I finished her a few months ago, and she just would not stop casting weird shadows.


Pulled warp tapestry, first attempt at figural shape. Still need some work on keeping my edges even on non-rectangular tapestries. And I think making them taller would make it easier to pull the warps and tie them off.

I also need to get some hatpins to stick in her. Or maybe stuff her and turn her into a pin-cushion.

Dona Nobis Pacem

Would it suffice you
were I to offer my heart
bleeding and raw
precisely removed
in the surgery
you have created
in this cage
of our lives
Would it suffice you
were I to lay down my life
in the battles
you deem worthy
to gain what you seek
Or would you require my soul
burning within
caught between the walls
you build and build and build
of your banalities
and your endless reasons
and your demigods
of logic and theology

As Demented Spectres Dance

As Demented Spectres Dance, 2007
14" x 6 1/2"
linen, wool, unknown fibre
pulled warp tapestry

A test piece I recently finished.

I was experimenting with flat, shaped tapestry and with creating transparency in tapestry (like the sleeve in "A mon seul désir" from The Lady and The Unicorn tapestry series


Part of the experimentation with transparency was to see what different thicknesses of white yarn would look like. I knew thinner thread would make a more transparent figure, but wanted to SEE it. This white thread was the same thread as most of the background threads, a 2-ply Quebecois.


This thread was the thinner wool yarn I usually do my finer tapestry pieces in.


Some fine, scrap yarn. Finer than the tapestry yarn, and I think it was rayon, so shiny too, to see if the shininess shows (not really).


And for the curious, this is a picture of the piece on the loom, nearly done, to show how it's done. I worked from the other side.

The title of the piece (or rather the later piece this was a test for) comes from one of my poems.

Forsaken

and perhaps you only linger here in dreams
as demented spectres dance
what other songs would you sing now
forsaken one
you are the child of an unspoken longing
your feet tap through the shadows
and you raise your arms to the cold
and distant blessings of the stars

Dona Nobis Pacem

The War Queen III

are we lost
and widow-damned
...sing the dead to sleep
who no more raise the sun among us
who no more lay the stars to rest

Brenda Gerritsma

New photos of "Irrational"

New photos of Irrational

As it looks now.

What my valley looks like now

Pictures were taken Feb 12, from the monument to 12-Foot Davis, overlooking the Peace and Heart (Hart? I'm a little unclear on that-it's the river no one ever talks about...) Rivers.

It was cold.

And there are bears.

Just saying, is all. We didn't see one or anything.

But they're there. I could feel their beady little eyes, wondering if we'd brought cake.

Irrational

"Irrational"
size indeterminate and changing, work in progress and still attached to ball
white crochet cotton, 2006

I learned to crochet in the spring of '06, and as I was sitting in my livingroom, randomly hooking string, I started thinking about the stories my mother had told me of when she was young, and the emphasis even the schools placed on teaching women to do fancy work like crochet and embroidery. My mother and her mother did very precise, mathematical work, much like a lot of my own work.

I started thinking about how for centuries women were believed to be more illogical and irrational than men, and how this was completely refuted by the precision of my mother's work. So I decided to see what would happen if I deliberately tried to crochet in an unplanned, and completely irrational way. This piece is the result. I plan to comtinue it until the entire ball is done.

This piece was shown in the Capilano College Grad Student Art Show at the Seymour Art Gallery in Deep Cove, North Vancouver, BC, May 9-June 4, 2006.