It is revealing and uplifting for me to see how the heart works, how life grows, how the spirits within us are radioactive seeds that radiate and spread. Maria has been working on her fiber chair for more than a year, it is her way of fusing her art with life. When she started it, I had no idea really, what it would be, but her threads and baling strings are becoming more complex and beautiful by the day.

Sun, rain, bitter cold, snow and ice are all the same to this work, she brings the baling wires and has created a work of art out of an old rotting rattan chair and the bales of string used to keep our hay together.

As the chair has evolved, it has drawn life and connection to it. First, Maria comes every day. Then Minnie has adopted it as her throne in the yard, she is always sitting on it. Then, Red has started hanging out there to keep Maria company, and in the last day or two, Fate has joined. The chickens march behind the chair in case anyone is leaving any crumbs behind.

So the chair becomes a locus, a focal point, a gathering of life, a place of connection. Something else, something different. This, I think, is  how creativity works. We write, we paint, we create, we sew, we sketch, and our work takes on a life of it’s own, enters the world, draws all kinds of energy towards itself. The old chair, disintegrating in the barn, a forgotten thing, ready for the dump, is not a loving thing, a sun around which moons revolved.

That the is the creative spirit, I think it’s how it works. I saw an old dusty chair with no seat, Maria saw something else, a piece of art, a continuing story of our lives, a mirror of us and where we are. I am learning to open my eyes, to see the world in a new way.