gaining clarity

Kate and I had a walk about in Ann Arbor last weekend. We've got an idea brewing about bringing you something very special in the coming months so we schemed while we took in the unique small urban town that is AA.

One stop on our list was the Ann Arbor Art Center. I've wanted to check it out for a while and I'm really happy we did - its about twenty different kinds of awesome.  Its difficult for me to be around that much great art without bringing something home and this was no exception. Behold my latest art acquisition:

I was smitten the moment I saw it and when I picked it up and realized it was a rattle, I was sold. It was made by Ohio artist Sandra Westley (no blog or website) and the thing that really made me fall in love with it was the writing stamped and carved into it:

A year ago I made a decision - to know my art. Not just to say I'm a textile or surface design or quilt artist. But to know what it was I was trying to create when I pushed and pulled fabric.

I began studying the Tao, and found the self examination it offered really forced me inward, making me look at who I was. To pick through the things that were static from other people's opinions and to really begin to form my own. I began to "distinguish sense from nonsense".

These are not easy things. And they never end. But I think the artist who made this rattle, who doesn't care about having an online presence of any kind in this decidedly online world, has a sharp focus that warrants pause. She makes art. That's enough. The rattle is simple but her energy is in it and I can see her hand moving across it with the dents in the clay and the uneven scratching of the lettering.

Perhaps that's enough, that quiet little place where nonsense has no business being.