Trying to make Life into a tapestry....

Poe, 5x7" 

It has been awhile since I've posted here. Life has become such a tangled web, of late. It seems that all news, global, national, local, and personal, has been difficult news. Like everyone else, I am struggling to cope with it all, and not making much of a success of it.

Just as the Covid-19 shut down began, I had begun a solo exhibit. The opening was on a Friday, and things were closed down on Monday. But, during that short weekend, I had begun a tiny tapestry to weave in the exhibit space, so people could see the process. It was the little tapestry above. It was designed to be playful and a bit mischievous, of our playful, mischievous kitten, Poe. When everything shut down, it took me awhile to regain enthusiasm for weaving it, but it was finally woven.

Ringo  5x7"

Shortly after it was completed I designed a companion tapestry of Ringo, Poe's adopted 'brother.' Ringo is more contemplative, watching to see what Poe is doing before he playfully joins in. I confess that I didn't finish weaving this tapestry until yesterday. Both are on little Hockett style looms, with a sett of 8epi. They are woven with wool thrums from other tapestries.

Neighborhood Watch  8x10"

Between weaving Poe and Ringo, I had woven this tapestry of the two of them for the ATA Renditions exhibit, which I have posted before. Since then, I've designed and begun weaving another tapestry on the large studio loom. Once again, it is of the two cats. Below is where I ended weaving today, with about 3 1/2" woven.

Yin and Yang (working title)

So. It looks like I have now become a cat lady. Or at least a cat weaver lady. But, my work is about my life. And recently we have been very isolated with a big elderly dog (whom I've woven, as well, in the past) and the two kittens, rapidly trying to become grown cats! They have made us smile when we sometimes struggled to find something to smile about. Looking at my photos from the past few months, most are of Poe and Ringo.

These are isolation tapestries. And I find I'm grateful to have something a bit 'sweet' to weave when I go to my looms. Life is hard for us all right now. I have woven hard things in the past, and maybe I'll have the courage to weave hard things again. I confess that my sketchbooks and my journals do tackle hard things. The color that I am weaving in my large tapestry is anything but bright and cheery, but I'm weaving what I can weave, and I feel like each pass of the weft through the warp is helping me get through another day.