One Year Later, Now What?

“What part of Missouri are you all from?” 

Mark and I were sitting in the hotel breakfast area quietly discussing plans for our new life when a very tall and surly man stopped in front of our table and asked the question without preamble. We just stared at him, frozen in place by his audacity. “I saw your cars, your plates,” he shrugged. “My kid is graduating from college, and we are moving back to Springfield. I’ve had enough of this place.” His visible displeasure turned fully into disgust when we informed him that we were moving to Minnesota. I don’t know why people are like this.

At the beginning of May, we will have been in Minnesota for a year. We survived our first winter and we thrived. The Twin Cities had the third snowiest winter on the books. The benefit of beginners’ mind is you don’t know what is unusual. We enjoyed winter and we expect to enjoy future seasons as well.

“Rag rug” sampling on the loom. Experimenting with the structure of a rug as a base for embroidery. Lots of color mixing and using scraps and random bits.

My studio work lately has been a lot of sampling and trying new things. Before I packed everything up I had some ideas that I worked on and I left those fabric samples to rediscover on the other side. I’m glad that I did that as I wasn’t starting from zero. I also had a sense that for the next year, I would sample, experiment, and see where things led me. I miss making my work and yet the work that I made before seems to have quieted within me. I have mostly gracefully allowed that to just be and to not pick at it. There are other times though where the inner quiet is interrupted by my own inner voice asking, now what? What will I make now?

I was finally able to voice what I’m thinking and searching for on a walk to our lake this week with my husband. All this time my work has been about an imagined place or places that have left imprints on memory—the places that I longed for. Now that I’ve discovered that place that I imagined, what does that mean for my work? My husband suggested that I still long for that place. I long for the place that I have. It was a subtle shift and a wise suggestion.

Early spring at the lake

The places that I long for are now here. There are many of them – some are a block away, some a thirty-minute walk away, and many I haven’t seen yet. Spring has come to the north, and while the earth is slow to wake up, the creatures here are announcing the changes. The osprey are back, we see eagles almost every day again, and my long held wish to see a loon has been granted. We have seen about six of them now. The landscape here touches the small curious child that I once was and I can’t seem to get my fill of it. No matter the season. I just love being outside here, even if only in the driveway.

Loon spotting!

In Other News

I recently had an article published on the Norwegian Textile Letter, an interview with artist, Soile Hovila. Weaving Light and Meaning: A Conversation with Artist Soile Hovila

My piece This Land recently was given Award of Excellence at the Hopkins Center for the Arts. The Spring Members Show runs until May 14, 2023.

This Land

Finlandia News

This morning I woke to some hopeful news. Finlandia University’s Finnish American Heritage Center, folk school, North Wind Books, the paper the Finnish American Reporter, archives and art gallery will be managed by Finlandia Foundation National, Inc. The foundations is based in California recognized the importance of the center and the importance of it to the community.

I’m grateful for this news and feeling bit lighter.

Read the full news report here.

On Being at the Great Northern Festival

The Great Northern Festival in Minneapolis is a two week annual winter festival to celebrate the cold, dark times in the north with programming about art, creativity, food, culture and to spotlight climate concerns.  Yesterday as part of this festival, I had the chance to attend a live podcast recording of On Being with Krista Tippett. Tippett was interviewing biologist, writer and consultant Janine Benyus. I wasn’t familiar with Benyus before this event and I’m surprised that I’ve missed her work. Benyus popularized the term “biomimicry,” a discipline to use nature as a mentor to create designs and processes to create a more sustainable planet. You can watch her excellent TED talk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k_GFq12w5WU to learn more. I plan on reading her book Biomimicry: Innovation Inspired by Nature. 

The conversation took place in an intimate auditorium at the Minneapolis Art Institute. Folks braved our latest air blast to attend the hour and fifteen minute conversation. I took notes throughout and I’m still processing the conversation. It is one that I won’t soon forget. 

Sunset in the city through the window of the MIA.

Benyus spoke of a childhood spent observing her neighbors, the non-human neighbors, on the “wild edge of the suburbs.” I’ve heard similar statements from other biologists and artists. This is certainly true in my own life. She offered up the concept of nature as a mentor. This statement caused a murmuring in the group. It certainly resonated with me as well. Nature as a spiritual place, as mother, as mentor and as a home.

So much of the conversation reminded me of the work of Robin Wall Kimmerer who was also a guest on On Being. I’ve been following Tippett’s early radio show, Speaking of Faith, that evolved into On Being and is now a podcast for as long as I can remember. She has interviewed so many artists, scientists, writers, and thoughtful people. Some of them I knew and many of them I discovered through Tippett’s thoughtful questions. I’ve often wondered how she is able to draw people into rich conversations? Tippett is able to link a lifetime of work into a conversation that seems to at least touch on everything, but highlights the through line that connects it all. I think this simple complex answer is that she researches deeply into people she interviews. Benyus wasn’t the first person to express surprise at what Tippett had in her notes to ask about.

A few other On Being episodes that have impacted my thinking and my studio work - not a complete list: