Hearts Full and Close

Blue-Heart-close

Naming today’s jpg files for purposes of posting them here, I used the words “close” and “full” to indicate cropping.  These files — “Heart Close” (above) and “Heart Full” (below) — put me to wonder, What is it to have another’s Heart Close?  Or even, one’s own Heart Close?  And, what is it to have a Full Heart?

Blue-Heart-Full

Here is the “Heart Full” — although in this case, it is not quite the entire quilt.   In this Heart Series of quilts, all of which feature a single heart perched on top of a busy mosaic, I have always been working with the notion that the fullness of our experiences add up to a kind of perfection.  And that this perfection normally eludes us, but in fact, is always there.  As a designer, it is easy to know that the dark-hued swatches of fabric are as responsible for the overall design (and dare I say, beauty?), as the lighter patches… As a human being, it is less easy to know that those experiences which wounded us the most, are just as responsible for the overall design (and dare I say, perfection?) of our lives as the sunnier experiences.

Blue-Heart-lower

As David Whyte  states in his poem “The Faces at Braga”, “If only we knew/as the carver knew, how the flaws/in the wood led his searching chisel to the very core,/we would smile too/and not need faces immobilized/by fear and the weight of things undone.”  (From “Where Many Rivers Meet”).

Heart-of-Darkness

This smaller quilt includes the word “Darkness”

heart-song-full

and, in the lower right corner, “SONG”.  These are not contradictions.

copper-heart-full

How does one become, again to quote David Whyte’s poem, “wedded to our essence”?

copper-heart-and-minis

such that the details transpiring in our tiny houses, do not impede the fullness of our hearts?

copper-heart-beads

4 thoughts on “Hearts Full and Close

    1. deemallon

      Thank you, arlijohn! I look forward to visiting your blog and reading some of your posts about quilting when I get a little time over the weekend.

      Reply
  1. arlee

    like the dark centred heart with the spiral–we will always come out of the darkness if we give ourselves the chance–and do the work

    i’m working on my heart piece as well–but mine’s more anatomical :}

    Reply
  2. deemallon

    “YES” to giving ourselves time and trusting in the processes of change! I have been looking at your hearts (and ribs) with great interest! Can’t wait to see more…..

    Reply

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