This piece has been in the making for months, years? Sometimes I lose track. It has been through several iterations. I think it’s done. Then I think it’s not. I reworked it a few times thinking that it was done each time. But this time I know it’s done. I even went ahead and got a frame for it.
When I started working on it again this past spring, there had been a couple of things that had happened (run-ins with scary, hateful people in public that make you question humanity and hope for the world) that made me feel like there was just this negative energy in the air. That kind that even when you away from the situation, the negativity still clings to your being. I went into my studio and started working on this and I felt like I could breathe easier. And while I was working on it, the line “In the midst of winter, I found with me, an invincible summer” kept running through my head. When I finished it, I looked up the line and read the whole writing. It was so appropriate. Strange how the brain/spirit sometimes knows what we need.
The title comes from this:
In the midst of hate, I found there was, within me, an invincible love.
In the midst of tears, I found there was, within me, an invincible smile.
In the midst of chaos, I found there was, within me, an invincible calm.
I realized, through it all, that…
In the midst of winter, I found there was, within me, an invincible summer.
And that makes me happy. For it says that no matter how hard the world pushes against me, within me, there’s something stronger – something better, pushing right back.
Albert Camus
This piece contains a lot of pieced together odds and ends. Fabric, paper, metal, ecoprint on fabric, denim and one of my photos I took on a solo winter hike in NH. Well, I actually like winter. ha!