Tao of WordLayers

Today I hung the panel. The photo is cropped and the subject hard to capture with my smart phone. As I stand in front of it, it is quite luminous as the sun pushes shadows and light through the texture of muslin  and the colors of ink. Hundreds of words and layers of text blend outward in a tone that reminds me of stained glass.

Today it hangs on the right of two French doors and I'm trying to decide what next. . .to leave it as a hanging shade or to make a couple more and frame them into a 3-panel screen? I tripped across the perfect summary of what this process and project mean to me:

The image of finely spun filaments describes the quality of spiritual energy that pervades the bodymind of a resolute follower of the Tao. Chapter 31 commentary (Bright-Fey)

Hemming

During the stitching, pressing and pinning of the hem the song "Don't fence me in" kept singing in my head. It seemed clear that art on fabric requires no restrictions, no boundaries. Perhaps word on word and layer on layer presents a dance of sorts which calls for lose running stitches put in by hand rather then machine--a quieting of the progress of the process. The long running stitches, the handwork, the dance and the fresh summer breeze folded within the turns of the hem. It is playful to approach something that is logically unknowable.  (The photo to the right is the backside of the panel ready for hemming.)

Wonderwork

Isn't it odd that I thought I was finished with the design?  One thing I know for sure is that I don't control the process of creativity. This is tricky because the application of one more piece is permanent and if it isn't true to the design. . .blah. The art of WordLayers is always perfect because it is without expectation or definition. But design is completely different. Design can be ruined with one false step and usually the elegant solution is a clean slate. So I thought I was done but I was not and I added two more rectangles to the muslin panel that will become a hanging of some sort. The text of the last block was Chapter One of Bright-Fey's Tao:

the tao source of life that we often talk about is beyond the power of words and labels to define or enclose / while it is true that we employ words and labels to outline our experience they are not absolute and cannot define the absolute / when it all began there were no words or labels / these things were created out of the union of perception and perception / whether a person who is awake in play sees the heart of life or its surface manifestations is hardly important because they are exactly the same point in space and time . . . . if you feel as though you really need a name / then call it wonderwork / and watch one miracle talk to another / in a language that you can feel but not understand / it is playful to approach something that is logically unknowable

I play with these words over and over and over. Truly a wonderful experience. So now, the design is finished. Right?

The Design

Since I began the process of de-cluttering my studio I have cleared the beautiful poplar worktable made for me by my husband, Chuck. Having such a table was in itself an inspiration. The sight of it brought enormous pleasure: seeing the empty and knowing the potential of full. I began working on a 16" x 72" panel with the intention of making either the first of two door shades for our French doors or an art piece to hang as an unfurled scroll. The 8' table was the perfect place to begin. Next came the piece of muslin bought as a remnant at the fabric store. Lovely muslin--a common, simple fabric that allows the sun to shine through translucently. The format of the art is WordLayers and the text is "The Whole Heart of Tao" as translated by John Bright-Fey. This is the first time for a WordLayers project to be based on words other then mine. I relished being a scrivener of these words which sing as a most lyrical Tao translation. The process of WordLayers meant that I was writing word on word and layer on layer. Yesterday I may have finished Step 1: the design.