Finding the Words

Finding the Words. 101cm x 65cm. Dryer sheets, transfer, cotton cheesecloth. Handstitched, embroidered
2019

The various roles society demands that women assume create fragmentation and division of self. In women’s roles as mother, sister, aunt, daughter, friend, professional, employee, employer, it often seems that too many people want pieces of you, demand more of you than you can give. All this creates a disconnect with the self and threatens well-being and wholeness.
With each art work created is an entry point into myself, uncovering me and making myself visible to others. This is especially true of Finding the Words, where my full-length portrait is curtained by the text and painting, nebulous and numinous. My silent voice makes itself heard. Text plays a more prominent role in my life, at times appearing to eclipse the visual art I am creating. The textile collage mirrors how words and images shape my thinking process. Slowly they emerge to form strands of words that are then stitched into a cohesive whole. My artistic process parallels my awkward, tedious and meticulous writing journey. Each word is carefully examined for flaws and tested for its quality and authenticity.

Finding the Words (poem)

I vanish between the spaces of the words

I disappear into the blanks

I recede into the silences

I can only find my creativity in the quiet places

I live in the place where there are no words

fueled only by the quiet

punctuated by various sounds

in this space 

my awareness wanders 

into nooks and crannies

of  ideas and thoughts

into  memory and emotion

where love is stored

Each word that comes to me a pearl

formed in the shell of my silence

and like the pearl

clear luminescent smooth and hard

each word a bead strung upon a strand

to make me whole

© Line Dufour 2019