I finally finished one of the Spirit Books I started over a year ago. After I thought I had finished with the series in 2005, I decided last year that I did miss making them and would start up again. There is nothing like a deadline to spur the final push to completion. I wanted to enter the book in the Regional Juried Competition at the Newburyport Art Association. The deadline for the online entry was 5 pm on Friday. I uploaded my image at 4:40.
The above photo is shows the camera and the book. I wanted to lead with that one for a first impression and save the one that shows the set-up better, but also the mess that surrounds it, until later.
I am going to need to rephotograph all the Spirit Books as I have made some changes before putting them together for a traveling show. What I am using now with stools works, but the photo paper gets wrinkled easily. I will be enlisting my problem-solver husband for help with something better. Since he was less than complimentary about my current system, I know he sees the need.
Here is the image of the book I uploaded:
so good to see your new Spirit Book, it shines with such warmth and deep soul, to quote Clarissa Pinkola Éstes from her Letter to a young Activist During Troubled Times-
ReplyDelete"...One of the most calming and powerful actions you can do to intervene in a stormy world is to stand up and show your soul. Soul on deck shines like gold in dark times. The light of the soul throws sparks, can send up flares, builds signal fires ... causes proper matters to catch fire. To display the lantern of soul in shadowy times like these — to be fierce and to show mercy toward others, both — are acts of immense bravery and greatest necessity. Struggling souls catch light from other souls who are fully lit and willing to show it. If you would help to calm the tumult, this is one of the strongest things you can do."
http://mavenproductions.com/index.php/services/dr-clarissa-pinkola-estes/dr-clarissa-pinkola-estes-letter-to-a-young-activist-during-trou/
thank you for sharing yours so brightly!
i am very glad there are more coming. they are strong books, susan.
ReplyDeletei think my comment got lost, so i'll just say that i am glad that more spirit books are coming. they'er strong books.
ReplyDeleteJust like all the Spirit Books, this new book makes you long to touch it and turn each page and feel the cradle wood beneath it.
ReplyDeleteAnd, wow, Mo . . . that is one of the few quotes I've read that does justice to Susan's powerful and response-provoking work. The quote is especially apt for the series as a whole; when many of the books were exhibited together for Susan's retrospective show, the displayed collection increased the intimacy and soulfulness of each book many times over. It was like a spiritual battery pack . . . the charge of energy flowing from book to book.
Thanks so much Mo, Nancy, and Velma. Mo, what a great quote. You always share such wonderful ones. and Nancy I was so glad that you were there to share the exhibit at Regis College in 2005 with me. They did such an amazing job with the installation.
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