re: glow embodied craft

I am cultivating garments, as they are a living second skin that touches the breath of our first skin. The pulse of each stitch invites an experience that is integrated with perpetual presence. I recognize that the capacity of the present moment is infinite. I seek to open up space for a being to step in to recognize their inherent integrity. The garment becomes a portal and by live streaming this process I open further portals for others to interweave our presen(ce/ts) together.  

This need to unravel and reweave is driving my work. Weaving can be a great analogy since I’m working with fibers. I am not weaving very dense material however I am weaving thoughts through the stitches. I am weaving stitches through my presen(ce/ts). (In conversation) I question systems that govern: cosmic systems, mythological systems, and systems of policy. What is a thought, what is spoken, what remains in the ethers and what gets pulled through? How does our physical reality – how do the illusions of the minds perception get pulled through the ethers and manifest an even denser form?

I then question cycles of matter and energy in plants and life and trees and rocks, animals and waterways. What patterns flow and what patterns stagnate? What systems flow and what systems stagnate? What systems stagnate patterns? From growing the cotton to the dyeing process, it can take an estimated 20,000 litres of water to make just one pair of jeans and one t-shirt (Oxfam). What patterns flow systems? How do we navigate through these thoughts? How is this navigation actually cultivation? How do we cultivate our web? How does our web cultivate us?

“… the claim of “universality” in exclusive negative and exclusionary terms […] to understand how the assertion of universality can be proleptic and performative, conjuring a reality that does not yet exist, and holding out the possibility for a convergence of cultural horizons that have not yet met. (Butler, 1999: xviii)” (Nayak)

I picture multiple webs – people with two completely different webs of associations. Perhaps they have very few connecting points: they are standing on the same rock and they are exchanging air yet they don’t speak the same language – or even language within language. This could be the beginning of the dance of weaving in that of itself. This living dance cannot be repeated when each web is a garden of its own tender. Here I recognize multiplicities of peoples that exist and their need to create their own sovereign connections, webs.

Originally I wanted to feel completely autonomous with the materials I was present with. I then realized that tending materials evoked a relationship beyond my self. I became an agent of presence. I noticed how qualities of the emergent garment opened up space for an integrated identity – an accumulation of perpetual presence. I relate this presence with Spirit or this spark of vitality. It recognizes integrity – recognizing the wholeness that is in the present moment. It is founding the present moment. The moment that we disassociate from the present moment is when we become fragmented. We can think about this presence as “I am here now” – but what is the origin of that presence? What is surrounding this presence? What is present with this presence? White fashion (capitalist, patriarchal, supremacist, racist, colonial) culture depends on the enslavement of people of hues doing the work – of laboring garments, of growing plants, of making products, of exploiting environments. In the conversations where whiteness says “I will be present” does it forget and numb how all of the surroundings became because it is in fact void of substance? How can void be present? Is it a void of presence? How have we avoided our ability to cycle energy? If voiding is to release, is voiding energy essential to recycle? How personal can we make garbage? Who and what define garbage? Is garbage simply accumulated neglect and fragmentation of presence? What patents stagnate recycling? 84 percent of clothing ends up in landfills (Brown). Globally we produce 13 million tons of textile waste each year, 95 percent of which could be reused or recycled (The Pretty Planeteer). The materials that I am working with have been labeled as Polyester and Rayon. These are not luxurious by definition, yet they are valuable simply because they exist. How do I cultivate relation with them to enhance the qualities they present?

I ask – as people of hues – how are we continuing to depend on oppressive systems? What are we doing to transform the presen(ce/ts) that surrounds us while recognizing how we are interconnected – recognizing how we are interwoven – and remembering how to cultivate the gardens of our spirit? These shifts ask to be done through policy – yet to manifest wholeness as integrity, to be pulled through the ethers of thought and emotion, needn’t we be present through the process? To be present with this act of shifting – unraveling – reweaving as presen(ce/ts) flows through us. There is policy of systems and there is policy of our minds and beings – what constitutes the subconscious of our minds? How does this breathe? How does this speak? How do we cultivate our presen(ce/ts)?  

The garments are almost like a refabricated identity based out of a wholeness that is found in the present moment. The distinction is that the fabrications are alive.

Bibliography

A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami “Teachings of Lord Chaitanya” International Society for Krishna Consciousness, 1968, First Edition, 61 Second Avenue, New York City, N.Y. 10003, U.S.A

Brown, Rachel “The Environmental Crisis Caused By Textile Waste” January 8, 2021, cited on May 18, 2021, https://www.roadrunnerwm.com/blog/textile-waste-environmental-crisis

Curry, Patrick [edited by]. “Divination: Perspectives for a New Millennium.” Ashgate Publishing, 2010, 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN. 

Deleuze, Gilles & Guattari, Felix. “a thousand plateaus capitalism and schizophrenia.” Translation and Foreword by Brian Massumi, Seventeenth Printing, The University of Minnesota Press, 2018, 111 Third Avenue South, Suite 290, Minneapolis, MN 55401-2520.

Karuna Productions “The Joy of Devotion – Full Documentary” March 8, 2020 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7N34WvWwv1E

Latour, Bruno. “Reassembling the Social An Introduction to Actor-Network-Theory: Introduction: How to Resume the Task of Tracing Associations.” Oxford University Press, 2005, Great Clarendon Street, Oxford OX2 6DP.

MacLeod, Sharon Paice. “Celtic Cosmology and the Otherworld: Mythic Origins, Sovereignty and Liminality.” McFarland & Company, Inc. Publishers, 2018, Jefferson, North Carolina.

Nayak, Suryia, “Race, Gender, and the Activism of Black Feminist Theory Working with Audre Lorde.” Concepts for critical psychology: disciplinary boundaries re-thought. Series editor: Ian Parker, Routledge, 2015, 27 Church Road, Hove, East Sussex BN3 2FA.

Oxfam Online Shop, “Are Your Jeans Drinking Up the World’s Water?” June 15, 2019, https://oxfamapps.org.uk/shop-blog/sustainable-fashion/post-about-sustainable-fashion/

The Pretty Planeteer “How Much Waste Does the Fashion Industry Produce?” cited on May 18, 2021, https://theprettyplaneteer.com/fashion-industry-waste/

Rosa, Hartmut. “Resonance A Sociology of Our Relationship to the World.” Translated by James C. Wagner, Reprinted English Edition, Polity Press, 2019, 65 Bridge Street, Cambridge CB21UR, UK.

Sadhguru. “Is It Possible To Levitate? Sadhguru Answers.” July 24, 2020, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HSyUIhsOt8o&list=WL&index=3&t=4s

Scott, E.L. “WEEKLY | Art Channeling for April 19-25 | Intuitive Self-Select.” April 18, 2021, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pf6UFIOHRQY 

Tavangar, Anisa “Slow Factory Foundation: Open Education: Fashion and Spirituality.” March 11, 2021, https://vimeo.com/522548318

Young, Ayana, Nkem Ndefo On The Body As Compass, Episode 227, For The Wild, March 24, 2021, https://forthewild.world/listen/nkem-ndefo-on-the-body-as-compass-227

self love

This week I have been focused on self-love as planetary healing and responding to deterrents from this. In presence, what does the role of voice play? In presence, what does the role of consciousness play? In presence, what does the role of listening play? How do we create change that does not lead back to the initial state of oppression and separation?

I have found that the source of motivation must be Love otherwise the source of pain perpetuates itself. I am using ‘Love’ in an expansive way – one that speaks to the energy of everything: Source, Tao, Chi, God, Life, Death, Birth, Dreams, and Cycles.

When I empathize; the neurons in my body mirror that which I am present with. The present state alters with consciousness. Therefore I literally have the agency to generate feelings of wellness within myself based on what I focus on.

Perhaps the issue of separation is like a forest maze deep within the collective psyche, and the source of vitality is like the water that keeps the forest alive and ever changing.

In the film Gabbeh, I saw a story of the ethereal spiritual realm weaving reality through dreams, art, expression, and a state of being in community where mind and matter are one.

This week I listened to Isha Judd talk about love-consciousness. She talks about living from the heart instead of the mind. She talks about ideas and how they grow and that when we attach to an idea and identify with it is where we loose our true nature of being Love.

This week I listened to Claudia Castro Luna: Washington State Poet Laureate at The Evergreen State College. She said, “art and beauty belong to no one, it is boundless and each one of us is capable of creating it”.

I spoke with a friend about cultural appropriation, art, and consumer culture. It left me questioning how emotions of shame, doubt, fear, and manipulation block the ability to create with Love. How do we reconnect with the source of Love in our-self and for our-self so that we actually have the capacity to respond with Love?

The act of reconnecting to myself, to forgiving and Loving myself is an act of stretching my imagination, and being open to new perspectives. It has been about shifting perspective, about digging into my subconscious and reaffirming my Love for myself, and being in this Love at every moment. I am beginning to be able to notice when I step out of this and give my power away to other people, when I step into their projections and begin to believe false narratives about myself. The truth is that only I can create my narrative. One moment of experience can happen and there are infinite ways to describe this in words, symbols, and interpretations based on what I am focusing on. My empowerment comes from being aware of this. What to focus on is my choice. I choose to Love. This way of being allows me to have healthy boundaries and to have the capacity to Love others. We are all connected. In this connection I only have control of how I respond to my-self and my own awareness. When I Love my-self I am also Loving the things outside of me through the fact that we are connected.