Fabric of Reality

I’ve been working on these little animal dolls from a book my mom gave me for Christmas. I use some old, meaningful clothing. Not only is it a way of revering nature by adoring the animal form, but it’s a means of processing my past and reformulating it for the future. The first animal I made used material from my grandma’s pants, a little bunny.

Grandma was very particular about her clothing. She would hem it up, give it customizations. She made little splits on the backsides of those pants so that she could easily put boots on underneath. When she died, I got boxes of her clothes.

Grandma and I were close. I’d think of her and the phone would ring and it would be her, lots of times. I do this with lots of people, but particularly her. Mom says Grandma’s fashion sense changed in her last years here-in-the-flesh and the reason was because I came back to the country.

We inspired each other. When I got back, everyone wanted to give me clothes, beautiful clothes. So lots of flowing, colorful skirts, typically matched with a t-shirt or round necked black shirt. And grandma dressed like a little elf with cheerful too-short-for-her-age skorts, skirts, pastel striped shirts and flower patterns.

I am making these little animal dolls with the thought that they will bring good luck to whoever has them, or if the person already has good luck, it will just be a little heap of additional good luck. And it’s also about revering what I’ve been through, revering time, making use of my hands for something. I went to a poetry reading with a doll I was working on and whenever someone had soothing words, words that weren’t upsetting, I stitched the words into the doll. So I’m hoping that it helps secure those good words into the fabric of Reality as well, and secures the caring types of actions that Grandma did (she was such a lovely, loving, appreciative person) into reality as well.

~ Lady