How come it’s not working? Have you asked that, when you get something back. It’s not quite right.

I got this cloth back today, printed with this image I had shared in an earlier post:

I was so excited when it arrived. And then… realized that there was a problem. Perspective, I’ll call it. No. Context is a better word.

All I had was the image. The image wasn’t set in a larger context. It had no “world” around it. Ever since I’ve taken on the mission of putting my art onto pillows – putting my art out into the world – it feels as if this theme has come up for me.

And I see also see it in my understanding of myself in day to day life. And over time. Years back, I had transferred from the University of Colorado to MIddlebury College in order to learn Serbo-Croation, with this mission to travel to a country then called Yugoslavia to share my love of art. I had no concept of my small universe : I’d traveled, but never lived with a family from another culture in another country. I studied the Serbo-Croation language for 2 years and then took plane and train to Yugoslavia, only to find myself living with a family that spoke Hungarian! There were 2 cars in the town, on occasion. Otherwise, people had donkeys or walked. Everyone knew each other. Food was bought fresh at an outdoor market. In fall and winter, it was orange or red (cabbage or peppers). No green. There was no plumbing or electricity and few rooms in my host family’s house. And they knew how to make art! Beautiful traditional embroidery. (The grandmother patiently taught me: laughing at my first attempts) They made their own wine. Played music and walked together. It was another world. My assumptions about why I was there and who I was in the world … gone.

I could no longer pretend that I had all the answers.

And that goes on. That sense of “I know”. And then proven… maybe not, maybe I’ve made assumptions.

Just put that idea in context.

Give it a little space.

Breathing room.

A-a-a-ah. Much better. I’ll send this image back to be printed.

To celebrate, the whole process of creating. The whole process of learning what it is to be human. And the love of the ever widening world.