I leave next week for a 20-day stay at the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts (VCCA). I will be joining other artists—writers, visual artists, composers, and me. The road there will take me through a long view of our country. In silence. I need silence right now to process these dark headlines. I need not list them. Darkness pervades. The colors are foreboding and disturbing.
The Sinkhole by Tennessee artist, Sarah Elizabeth Cornejo
In her book, Late Migrations, a natural history of love and loss, Margaret Renkl wrote:
“Every day the world is teaching me what I need to know to be in the world.
In the stir of too much motion: Hold still. Be quiet. Listen.”
Road trips give me that blessed silence—to notice, process and dream.
I did this little stitched work to explore how words are sometimes not enough. Like now. They’re not enough.
This is the kit I am bringing to this residency. These items and a sewing machine should keep me busy.
It is green here. So green. Wet and green. Green that cools the heart. Green that makes the outside smell different. Green that might change my mind about my favorite color (Orange). AND! It is seventy degrees outside. Paradise.
How can that be when there is so much to be angry, sad and mournful about? How can I keep this green in my heart while also processing the darkness?