Challenge 2: What would you do with 9 lives?

There is an old myth that cats have 9 lives.  The idea may come from the fact that cats have a natural instinct to twist their bodies and land feet-first, allowing them to survive falls from high places.

Human beings only have one life, and most people protect it at all costs. Unlike the cat's instinct to land feet first from a fall, our natural instinct is to AVOID falling from high places whenever possible.

But what if we could fall… and survive? 

Challenge: What kind of risks would you take if you were guaranteed to NOT GET HURT even if you failed? Possibilities might include physical risks, emotional risks or artistic risks.  What kind of heights would you attempt if you knew you'd land on your feet?

Gallery opens December 27, 2013

Where is my limit?

by Misik Kim

AS teacher, quilt artist, and housewife, I have too much work to do.

in particular, there are a lot of things like obligation in housework.

In early winter, we are so busy to make Kimchi for winter.

Every year, the last thing given to me is making kimchi.

Kimchi for the winter is called kimjang kimchi (hangul: 김장 김치).

In preparation for the long winter months, many types of kimjang kimchi (hangul: 김장 김치) were prepared in early winter and stored in the ground in large kimchi pots. Today, many city residents use modern kimchi refrigerators offering precise temperature controls to store kimjang kimchi. November and December are traditionally when people begin to make kimchi.

Making Kimchi is hard working.

Much easier than before, but still should be working all day .

But Kimchi is so delicious and healthy food, so we make it every year.

I want to have more time to work for my works.

School closed and vacation start ......

These days, I wonder how long I can work.

Even if I don't know where my limits are, I am cleaning up my studio and keep going step by step for works now.

It is best thing I can do now.

Merry christmas and Happy new year!!!

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!

If only

What a beautiful premise Kate puts to us- live, enjoy, die and be reborn. Perhaps this is even more pertinent as I am travelling in India once again at this very moment. Everywhere in India is the ever present representations of numerous religious beliefs, in vivid contrast to the often mundane and  very poor existence of the average population.

However I was drawn to think about my own aspirations and the adventurous things I might do if I was guaranteed to survive and of course could overcome my fears!
Bungie jumping, sky diving, deep sea diving, exploring unknown cave systems, foreign correspondent in a war torn country, ocean going sailor, mountaineer on Everest, lion tamer or snake catcher may have been on my resume!

But then I am happily content with my own life and the many opportunities I have.
 

The Story of Women

by Lin Hsin-Chen

It’s so nice to meet Martha and Betty in IQF-Houston. It was also great to see my large quilts being exhibited in such a grand venue; this is something that I have been dreaming of for many years. The 10 quilts were made with many people in different times. We sewed our emotions, negative or positive, and lots of memories of the growing process of women in the quilts. We take sewing as therapy to find a new self to face our lives. When the quilts were hung in IQF-Houston, it not only comforts my hard-working times, but also encourages everyone who has participated in the project. It was significance.

I shared my story of Houston with my mother. Again, she took out my grandmother’s Lotus shoes and told me the story of my grandmother and her needlework. In Eastern culture, women used to bind their feet (also known as “3-inch Lotus Feet”). Women at that time need to sew their own shoes. They usually embroidered the shoes with the newest pattern by using the newest skill they learned. Or, with age, they showed the understated beauty and supple texture on the Lotus shoes. They were “women’s wisdom on the foot”.

The “Mirror Cover” is another thing from my grandmother. It was a representative of the unique culture of women who grew up in an ancient aristocratic family. In the old times, mirrors must be covered up when they are not in use. It was considered as a modest virtue for women. The mirror cover was embroidered and hand stitched by my grandmother. It’s so delicate. I can imagine that women in different ages had to learn to adapt themselves to the environment at that time and keep themselves supple.

There are a variety of special learning experiences in my life. Whether it’s in progress or already past, they have been encouraging me to continue to make large collaborative quilts and keep helping vulnerable women to complete their own stories and improve themselves over time and space. I do enjoy this precious opportunity a lot!

Me and my husband in IQF-Houston

Long, long ago

Long, long ago, long before the age of man, strange creatures roamed the earth.
They were called dinosaurs.

So began my favorite book from as far back as I can remember.  The stories of Roy Chapman Andrews' treks across the Gobi Desert searching for fossils were something I never tired of.

Difficult even today, the journey back then was a grand adventure, braving death defying conditions to find traces of an amazing world that does not exist any longer.

I learned the entire Latin names of all of my plastic dinosaurs- even though dimetrodon was part of the group, which was a synapsid mammal and dinosaur antecedent, and pteranodon too, which isn't a dinosaur either.

Since Chapman's time, in fact, there has been a revolution in scientific thinking about dinosaurs.  The pioneering paleontologist Robert Bakker wrote a book called the Hot Blooded Dinosaurs, which paved the way to today's predominant theory that they were warm blooded, fast living creatures, and the direct antecedents of birds.

So, if I could magically start a new career, I would be a paleontologist, or, to keep art in the picture, a model builder of prehistoric creatures.

Thanks Kate for this thought provoking challenge!

I am not a risk taker

Truth be told, I am not a risk taker at the time I am deciding to do something.  I don't think in those terms.  I think about what it is I want to do and then do it.  There's probably some official psychological syndrome that sounds pretty scary for my way of responding to the world.

For the last two weeks, I've been puzzling over this challenge.  I guess I get to thank Kate for that :^/  Reflecting over the years has brought back memories of "how in the world did my parents allow that?!" or later in life "what the heck was I thinking?"

It started when I was 8.  I had had enough and it became suddenly quite clear to me that I did not belong with 'these people'.  I was sure that I had been adopted and my 'real' family was out there looking for me.  I emptied my younger brother's wooden tool box so that I would have a small durable suitcase.  I filled it with my favorite dress and a change of socks.  As I charged for the door, that same little brother rushed after me.  I thought he wanted his tool box…but no.  "You aren't leaving me here alone!"  So we went together.  Several hours later, even though we hid blocks away, our mother found us.

Then when I was thirteen our family relocated to southern Japan, the island of Kyushu (13,761 sq. mi. in area).  My parents, like everyone else's, had curfews and established rules.  Homework done first.  Play with friends, okay but must come when whistled for.  And for teenagers:  Home by 9pm on school nights and 10 on weekends….and…in Japan….don't leave the island.  Really!  Don't leave the island?!

Kumamoto Castle

Even then in the late 1950's, war-recovering Japan had a wonderful train system.  If you planned your day right you could go to Kumamoto Castle and get back in time for dinner…it's only a bit over 60 miles and around an hour and a half train ride to reach.  Then there were the times you could just get on a train and go.  Maybe just a town or two east.  Walk around the town….maybe find the local shrine on top of a hill…maybe have tea with the monks.                                       
You might also 'talk' yourself onto a family of fishermen's boat and go see how they harvested octopi.

 I couldn't find a picture of the 'wiggle boats' like the one I was invited onto near Shikanoshima, an island in Hakata Bay just over a bridge from our home in Hakata, outside of Fukuoka.  This one looks nothing like it but it's pretty and I'd have a go at talking my way onto it.

Not thinking too much about risks has given me a life-time of adventures and lots and lots of stories.  Yes, there are, mixed into the stories, some that are cautionary tales on what not to do.  Very real 'what not to do' tales.  But still…..there's not much I would do differently…okay, maybe my second husband :^)

Kowabunga

Me……in my dreams

As a tweenager in land-locked Ohio, I lived my California, surfer-girl fantasy via Sally Field as Gidget!  Gidget's real name was Frances - - which is *my* middle name, so it had to be we were like the same person!  In an effort to experience California first hand (and to convince my parents it was the perfect vacation destination), I wrote the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce for information to plan my fictitious trip.  I was absolutely deluged with glossy flyers and coupons….but all for naught.

In 1967, our family relocated, very briefly, to Daytona Beach, FL.  Despite our close proximity to the Atlantic, we rarely made it to the beach and only once did I actually (attempt to) stand on a surf board.  Being a pale, freckled redhead, it was probably for the best.  But the fantasy persisted.  When Bruce Brown brought "The Endless Summer" to the Peabody Auditorium, *I was there*!  Everything about it appealed to me.  And continues to.  A poster from the movie graces the wall of my studio.

I don't know what the magic is about surfing, but it calls to me.  The opportunity to surf has been there in my life but it seems like there was always an excuse - not enough time, the water was too cold, the sun was too bright, whatever.  When I was turning 50, I found this great surf safari camp, Las Olas.  Their motto,  "we make girls out of women".  That was my plan for my celebration.  But, alas, it came and went.

But now that you've brought it up, Kate……maybe :)

Lisa-Marie, I can hear you the entire time I am writing this…..shush.