Witches' Brew

I have been working with cauldrons and skillets as sources of designs for some quilts which I am making for an exhibition in Autumn 2015 in the UK. The letter Tet has a clear cauldron shape, so I decided to investigate some further connotations.

A cauldron is a large metal cooking pot, also used for boiling, often made of cast iron or copper. They often have three legs, which allows good air flow; sometimes they have a hanger. They are not used now in modern society, but it was a main cooking tool for many centuries, and in a variety of societies.  The association with cooking means that the produce of the cauldron gives sustenance to people.  We couldn’t live without food.  Eating allows us to live, and therefore to achieve our potential.

There are ancient stories that talk about cauldrons of great abundance, bottomless, capable of feeding an army.

Cauldrons, as a cliché, are also associated with witches.  Witches have a bad press, but I believe they were women trying to develop medicines and healing potions; as they were different from the common and accepted folk, they were feared and persecuted.

In Neo-Paganism, cauldrons, with their three legs, are sometimes meant to represent the Goddess in her three states: Maiden, Mother and Crone. They are also meant to represent the three main stages of life:  birth, life and death. The shape of the cauldron represents the womb of Mother Nature.

Skillets have long handles.  Some of the ones I studied have relief inscriptions on the handles. The text can be simply the name of the maker, but other times they are moral sayings, such as “Love thy Neighbour”.

My piece shows a large Tet-shaped cauldron, on a fire, cooking mankind’s potential, and the ‘steam’ coming from it writes positive statements. They are, from left to right:  YOU ARE ALIVE; THINK BIG; A WORLD OF POSSIBILITIES;  REACH FULL POTENTIAL; DREAM THE DREAM.  A few other cauldrons and skillets, each with three legs, and one with a hanger, complete the picture.

18” by 18”; hand-dyed cotton, fused appliqué, machine quilting.

Outer Space

When I was 13 years old, I wanted to be an astronomer.  I read extensively about the solar system, the Milky Way, galaxies, the universe, and everything.  But one day I discovered that to be an astronomer you needed to study and know a lot of maths. Unfortunately I was terrible at maths at school – it was a closed book to me – so that put an end to the idea of pursuing a career as an astronomer.  A great pity!  as I still have a strong interest in all matters related to the universe – from spinning galaxies, red dwarfs and black holes, to the subatomic particles that are being discovered in the Large Hadron Collider in Geneva - like the Higgs boson.  I am fascinated by, and watch, and read, a lot of stuff on astronomy, geology, physics and chemistry – although I still keep well away from the maths.

Recently I saw the film Gravity, and I thought that if I couldn’t be an astronomer, maybe I could try being an astronaut? However, the risks are great, as shown in the film – from debris in space, and other things. 

I am not normally a person that takes serious risks - although I have done occasionally in the past – but if I could be guaranteed not to get hurt by being out in space, and that I will land back on my feet, that’s what I like to do – be on a mission in a space station.

My textile vision of outer space was achieved by printing on fabric, heavily photoshopped photos I took of trails of Christmas tree lights – achieved by moving the camera while set on a very slow speed.

Alicia

Jorge Luis Borges

Jorge Luis Borges (1899 - 1986) was an Argentine writer – famously known as ‘the best writer never to be awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature’.  Maybe that was because he never wrote a novel – he wrote short stories, essays and commentary.

His short stories are amazing – they are mostly really short, very dense, very profound, totally fascinating. They are at the same time philosophical, magic-realist and fantastical.  His best known collections of stories are found in English under the titles of either “Fictions” or “Labyrinths”.

Borges spoke both English and Spanish fluently, as both were spoken at home.  His grandmother was English.  He had an immense love of books and literature, and was for a period in charge of the National Public Library of Buenos Aires.  He was educated in part in Geneva, where he learn French and German, and throughout his life travelled extensively, partly because the political situation meant that at times he was persona non grata in Argentina. He did not want to risk being thrown into prison and may be even become one of the 'disappeared'. He became blind around 1950.  He died in Geneva at age 86.

I love some of his quotations regarding time:

“Time is the substance from which I am made. Time is a river which carries me along, but I am the river; it is a tiger that devours me, but I am the tiger; it is a fire that consumes me, but I am the fire”.

“This web of time -- the strands of which approach one another, bifurcate, intersect or ignore each other through the centuries -- embrace every possibility”. (The Garden of Forking Paths)

... and about the Library:

“I have always imagined that Paradise will be a kind of library”.

“The Universe (that some call the Library) is composed of an undefined, maybe infinite number of hexagonal galleries.” (The Library of Babel)

... and his way of describing himself:

"I am not sure that I exist, actually. I am all the writers that I have read, all the people that I have met, all the women that I have loved; all the cities that I have visited, all my ancestors."

I saw him once in Buenos Aires, during one of my rare visits to the city, in a literary café, guided by his companion, later his wife, when he was quite old.  It was quite an experience!

About Time

It is time for me to write my first blog post for Viewpoints 9.  Exciting and scary at the same time!

Time fascinates me.  In theory it moves at a regular pace, but in reality it can move very slowly or very fast; it depends on perception. Nine minutes can feel an eternity if you are simply waiting for something; while nine hours can pass in a flash if you are busy and active and never stopping.

Clocks are fascinating instruments.  They are everywhere, and they regulate time and our lives.  There was a time when they were rare and very expensive; the development of cheap watches changed that. 

Large clocks could be beautiful home centrepieces. 

Clocks on public places were common and often consulted.

Some of them were much more complicated, and told not just the daily time but also astronomical time, the phases of the moon, the seasons, and many other things.

See below - Jen Jensen's World Clock in Copenhagen.

Nowadays time is kept by atomic clocks, which are so accurate that they deviate only one second in 20 million years.  It is that kind of accurate time that is transmitted to our mobile phones.

About Time is also the title of a recent British film where time travel is used as a device for a story intended to make us appreciate time – how important it is to use it well, and not do things we may later regret, as we cannot go back to the past to change our actions.