Mermaid Paper Sculpture

We are mermaids, who love the sea. Created to swim in the subterranean depths of the world, we know that we are invisible to many and still, we belong.

sea dreams

The mermaid paper sculpture is ready to be put together, in layers, with toothpicks and glue.

building a mermaid

I love this part, when all the pieces come together, and a microcosm appears. Big noisy world is not the only reality. We all have inner dwellings, and sometimes art makes these visible, we can share our dark, or shiny places with each other. With our hands we can share hope, and we can dream onward.

with care

I have had some difficult conversations this week, with people that I love.

When I woke up this morning, I had a structure in my mind, but no image. I folded the paper in three, and just started to cut, drawing with a scalpel. 

What does love require of us? 

 Everything.

Cauldron

Paper sculpture, 11x14

A new paper sculpture, mirroring the heat of summer. The spark of creativity, and the fire inside. How do we draw on the fire, and not have it consume us? As I reflect on the biblical and mythological tales, I envision the cauldron of collective wisdom and experience on which we draw when we live and create. Wrestling with the tension between solitude and connection, I feel the great heartbreak of the world, living and breathing as one, yet still so separate. At times I feel so utterly helpless to right the wrongs, or even lessen the pain and burdens of those I love and care for. My best understanding is that I have to love with all my heart and strength and the work of my hands, and then entrust it to the healing force so much greater than mine.

“We work in the dark - we do what we can - we give what we have. Our doubt is our passion, and our passion is our task. The rest is the madness of art.” Henry James

Gratitude

The artwork for which I built multi layered shipping containers has arrived safely, several hundred miles from here. I am relieved...but even more I feel so much gratitude, to the people who commissioned the work. They were lovely to work for, and it was a complete joy to be involved in this project. I feel so fortunate and grateful for the shining river of love that serves to connect us all to each other, through dreams and visions, into art and life.

Joy

I decided to play with a simple book shape today. When you open the card the word JOY pops up. 

This was a  fun beginning to an exploration that I hope to continue!

A Learning Experience

When I went to send this artwork, and its companion pieces to the people who commissioned it, the shippers deemed the work too delicate to ship, and insure. After much exploration, and discussions with helpful local framers and builders, at the art materials store, and the lumber yard, this is the solution that I arrived at. I built up the inner shell from 7 layers of foam core, cut and glued as a nest for the artwork, which is pretty sturdy in itself, on a base of illustration board. I will lay a piece of foam core over the top, and then a final piece of plywood will be screwed on top. The sides are pine furring, with L brackets. I think that this will be very sturdy. I have learned a lot about how roughly packages are treated, and how much thought and care must go into shipping. May there be blessings in our handiwork, and traveling mercies as well!

River of Love

This is my first piece completed since setting up my studio in my new home. It celebrates the river nearby, as well as reflections on events in the national news during the past week. The power of love, and the nature of forgiveness have been in the collective awareness, evoking the mighty river, as well as the unending journey, toward justice.

Starscape

Starscape

Still shining world, moving a few spins onward.

The wonder that's keeping the stars apart...

Harlequin! a new doll, with a painted muslin face, cotton cloth, stuffing,bells, beads buttons and ribbons.

Harlequin makes me think of the poet ee cummings who wrote "Damn everything but the circus!" and...

"here is the deepest secret nobody knows

(here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud

 and the sky of the sky of a tree called life; which grows

higher than soul can hope or mind can hide)

and this is the wonder that's keeping the stars apart

i carry your heart (i carry it in my heart)"

At the threshold

First a group portrait of my created friends who in turn create me, watching as I work.

 Next is a crossing the threshold story told in the form of a nesting doll. Life is full of thresholds that we cross and sometimes we don't even notice. It is how we grow, moving from dark to light, developing as beings in the world. Often at a threshold there is fear before we make the crossing.

I made these nesting dolls to be a reminder that it's OK to be afraid.
This is where we have the chance to whisper to each other "keep going..."

Nesting Dolls: Each one opens and contains the next

Fear Not

Fear Stands Guard

At the Threshold of Mystery

May All Beings Be Happy

                                                                                 

May All Beings Be Free...

keep going...my friend

Sarabande doll

           I finished this doll today and named her after the type of music I was hearing when I made her.
           She is all felt, all hand sewn. I sewed her arms and hands during a staff meeting! 

In nursing school many years ago, it surprised me to find that a cross section of our spinal cord shows nerve cells shaped as a butterfly, where sensory information flows to our awareness. That butterfly is a primal imprint in human consciousness, a symbol at times for death and rebirth.

Certainly in winter we can feel the dream of emerging from a cocoon toward a gentler spring.

Driftwood doll

I found him in Burlington Vermont near the fishing pier dock, Lake Champlain. I took him home and painted him, but left one side raw wood as I found him and sealed it. Painting driftwood feels like a collaboration with the wood and water and time.
I have had Shakespeare's Sonnet 15 on my mind lately, particularly the final two lines:
And all in war with Time for love of you, As he takes from you, I engraft you new.

It expresses for me the small possibilities we have to redeem and make new. It is my antidote to the cultural message of the futility of effort. We are so small, and our lives so brief, and yet we can spin magic,

and love and heal and create.

creative life

This newest doll has a paisley beaded heart. Her face and arms are of felt and paint, and her hands and feet are doll clay. Her hair is of all sorts of yarns, a shiny-beaded fiery balance to the winter weather.

I had a challenging week.The light is slowly returning.


Here is something else that I want to share. It is wonderful to be a part of the creative life, where seams show, hearts are worn outside, and feelings are a core component of what makes us human.


Thank you to artists and poets and music makers and creators of all stripes and polka dots.

Thank you to all who resist the pressure to conform to the narrows.

I am honored to walk in your company...

bright shiny love

Here are some of the dolls that I have made since November.
I have been using a simple form to play with colors, stitches, embroidery, beads and bells.

Making these makes my fingers sing. I hope that everyone finds the work that renews them, that brings them home again. 

Earth can be a lonesome planet, at times...

Where do I know you from?

And then we recognize each other again!

You are from the country of my soul. We have been here all along. Where else could we ever go?

I find myself at peace again.  Renewed...

Wishing you joy and  light in these dark times, and the endurance to create and share healing with all those who surround you.

We will not let fear diminish us.


cotton, felt, embroidery  floss, beads, love...

Spring is here, heralding creative survival! New beings...are being made...painted muslin faces, felt and fabric and bells...

a meditation on jacob's ladder

paper sculpture Karen Brooks 2010

Born into the world between silence. 

The sounds reverberate between silence.

   Keyboard, fret board, musical staff, all resemble ladders. 

Fingers, notes, angels, ascend and descend the spaces between. 

The silence embraces the sound, form is etched onto silent space.

From where ever you are, still connected to the eternal one.

A life, a brief and holy moment

between silence.

fire dragon

paper sculpture by Karen Brooks 2010

Today, all day, I felt small, like I was fading to darkness. Sometimes lost in the beast of conformity, I shut down. It's an old habit.
    A loved one reminds me; "you speak in color, it flows from your eyes, don't make yourself gray for others. You belong here too."
   Then I realize that I'm not in the wrong place. The force of transformation is here, to be called on, the force of love and power, promising to be here as long as we need. Ancient and twisted through to the core, reaching back to the stars, what we are born to be. To be a blessing, each and everyone, in our own way. We get to practice this with each other, and no one is excluded.

still climbing...

paper sculpture/ Karen Brooks 2010