Glancing back for the past year working in a series was once again the main thrust of most of the past year’s work: Attributes of Form was a small format but refreshing body of small work for me to explore and could be the basis of more in this line of exploration. With architectural underpinnings, these were mostly funky jaunts of imagination.
On a larger and deeper scale, Liminal States and the Thresholds of Change took me on an important personal and professional journey, culminating in being the portfolio of work that gained my acceptence into the Juried Artist Member status in SAQA!
“What is a JAM?
A JAM is a juried artist member of SAQA who has successfully presented a portfolio of professional quality images and documents to the JAM Review Panel (JRP).The portfolio presents a body of work that represents a singular point of view or signature collection. The artist’s resume demonstrates a record of juried exhibitions beyond the local. Documentation and images are of high quality, as expected by gallery and museum personnel, as well as collectors and publishers.” *http://www.saqa.com/memberArt.php?ID=3381
I feel some real job satsfaction from this reward and feel that SAQA is the most important organization one can join as a fledgling textile artist. The connections I have made through this group and the information and feedback one gets as a membership benefit is invaluable.
My artist statements for the Liminal States and Thresholds of Change Series pretty much chronicle the discovering of foundlings that I bumped into between the spaces that I explored.
Some excerpts:
Liminal State: “…the sensory threshold is a transitional point where sensations are …”barely perceptible” … “transitional” or “intermediate,” as in “the liminal zone between sleep and wakefulness.”
Gestation: “After the chaos? Shut down; then turning inward for reflection…barely perceptible shift of feelings begins to occur, not even thought yet…When I was a child, I remember hearing the birds sing as dawn approached – in that state of being barely nascent – not entirely asleep but not at all awake. It’s a magical place where no effort is required for change to evolve, for ideas to throw out shooters to find fertile ground to root in. You hardly even have to listen to hear the songs.”
For Senses of the Fertile Soil (Dedicated to the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe) a poem emerged:
Rocks In My Mouth by Janis Doucette
From this tribe springs a language that speaks to the water and of the earth with words that roll around the rocks in my mouth.
“If facts are the seeds that later produce knowledge and wisdom, then the emotions and the impressions of the senses are the fertile soil in which the seeds must grow. Rachel Carson
Thank you so much for for reading and commenting on my blog this year! I so appreciate having you as travel companions on my art journey. It wouldn’t quite be the same without you!
Turtlemoon Impressions 
It is so impressive seeing these series together, Janis! What an achievement!
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Thanks Chris! I appreciate your saying so!
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