What do these things have in common?

Making coffee

emptying the dishwasher

doing laundry

reading a book

cooking dinner

taking out the trash

walking the dog

checking email

brushing my teeth

taking a bath

They are all activities that are not a part of daily activity while one is experiencing a crisis. As the crisis resolves, these activities slowly come back into one's life. As each is re-introduced a feeling of celebration greets the activity. I call it celebrating normalcy. That is what my current piece is all about.

The back of my piece is made of hand-dyed silk noil in a charcoal coloration. Silk screened on top in several pastel hues are the above activities. To me they capture the essence of everyday life that slips to the margins of daily activity when a loved one is sick, a flood occurs, power goes out for days, or an earthquake shakes our world. I have experienced it a few times and have always marveled at the preciousness of those daily activities we so easily take for granted. But it is just such activiity which separates us from crisis. It is how we know life will again return to normal. It is the re-introduction of the mundane that gives us hope of life being closer to what we imagine it should be.

Today I was finally back in my studio after weeks of chasing the dime. I finally got hte quilt layered and basted and did my first row of stitching- the horizon line that runs across the middle. Aaah normal!