Oliver skirt, part 2.

I decided to add a bird to my skirt:

And I thought she needed a friend:

Then the back looked a little lonely without any birds, so I added one more down at the hem:

The paint is a combination of several colors of Lumiere.  Honestly, Jacquard paints are not my favorites, but the flow of the Lumiere is nicer than the solids.  There's also a little Setacolor mixed in (which is my favorite).

Here is what the skirt says, from the poem The Summer Day by Mary Oliver:

I don't know exactly what a prayer is.
I do know how to pay attention, how to fall down
into the grass, how to kneel down in the grass,
how to be idle and blessed, how to stroll through the fields,
which is what I have been doing all day.

The next line of the poem is "Tell me, what else should I have done?" and when I started the skirt, I'd planned to screenprint that line on it, smaller, and in several places.  It seemed fitting for my, "I should be doing more to help my community!" attitude.  Then in the middle of working on the skirt, something came up around our house that I am stilll trying to get my head around (and which I'll write about more completely later) -- and which also explains my sporadic blog posts lately.  Now the poem has a different meaning for me, and I am focusing instead on the word blessed, which I have embroidered over to create a little subtle texture:

I like that it's easy to miss that embellishment on the word blessed, unless you're really paying attention.

Comments

[Tl hendrickson]

Gina,

I love this homage to Mary Oliver skirt. The birds are a wonderful addition. You are such an inspiration.

T.

[gisele]

Just like in real life. Sometimes you don't always notice your blessings unless you bring your attention to them. Your skirt is beautiful, but I love how you are using the process to work through what is going on. creating art is powerful, isn't it? Best wishes for whatever it is that you're working on at home these days.

[Roxanne Falkenstein]

Just found you through Pintrist..best find yet. I have always loved handwriting..as a child I used to just write out the alphabet and invent font styles..you have a great hand, and I'm looking forward to seeing more of your work.
Roxanne