Above: "Into a New Era," my interpretation of Recipe #1.
Ingredients:
- a smattering of election ballot or other political paraphernalia
- a dash of electric blue
- a hand-stitched image
- a word or image from a dream.
Directions:
1) Begin with a dream you remember vividly. Choose some dreamy music and warm up by dancing out your memory of the dream. You can dance out the roles of the different characters, the action that took place, or just the overall feeling of it. Do this blindfolded.
2) Choose something from your dream dance that stood out to you. It can be a word, a sensation, a person, a scene… Whatever! This is your starting point.
3) Tear up some newspapers from election week. Tear for the sheer pleasure of tearing! Take a couple of scraps from your mess, or use your absentee ballot, or other political paraphernalia and add it to the mix.
4) Go wild choosing blues, wielding your needle and throwing in whatever else strikes your fancy. Don't think too much. Work quickly, freely and most importantly, have fun!
Above: Joui's interpretation of Recipe #1. To read about the making of her piece, including the dream that inspired it, please visit her blog.
The Dream behind My Piece
I started Recipe #1 in response to a dream I had several weeks before the presidential election.
In the dream, a black man was a passenger on an old-fashioned steam train. There was some kind of turmoil on the train, and the sense that it was headed in the wrong direction, about to enter a very dark, narrow tunnel.
The man clambered outside the train, holding onto the side ladder. Even though the train was passing over a deep ravine, which dropped hundreds of feet below, he let go, and fell backwards, soaring in free fall. Miraculously, he landed at the bottom unscathed.
Into a New Era
I felt like the man in this dream represented the courage and fearlessness it takes to break with an old way of being, and let go into the new, the unknown.
I titled this piece "Into a New Era," in honor of the dream, and this pivotal time in our country. If you look closely, you can see bits and pieces of election materials – scraps from my absentee ballot and voting materials – peppered throughout the piece. The figure is flying forward, leaving behind a cityscape, and about to exit the canvas, into…???
Above: Detail from "Into a New Era."Art without Borders
I really enjoyed creating this collage. In fact, I was so caught up in working on it, that when it came time for me to depart for Mexico (where I am now) I couldn't bear to leave it unfinished, so I smuggled it along in my suitcase. I've been sitting in cafes at night here in Guanajuato putting the finishing stitches into the canvas and attracting many curious glances from baristas and waiters.
The other night I had a young barista approach me shyly and ask "How much will that cost when you're done?" I told him: "One million coffees!" We both had a good laugh.
Above: Me working on Recipe #1 on the terrace of Alma del Sol, in Guanajuato. So that's the tale, on my end, behind the completion of Recipe #1. To read about Joui's experience of working on this first project, please click here. Thanks for following along, and please do drop us a line if you have an idea for some ingredients to go into our next recipe, or if you have created your own version of this one. Hasta luego!
Above: A "buzon", or mailbox, here in Guanajuato. Don't forget to write!
