Winter Solstice, 2016

Celebrate this quiet time between holidays by lighting some candles, taking a walk in the woods, looking at the stars or whatever you do to find stillness. That or plan something revolutionary.

Some primal winter words from “Closing The Circle,” by Jim Dale Huot-Vickery:

“Let the snow and ice and darkness, the winds and shadows, the deer bleats and wolf howls, the grunts and snorts and bawls, the fox barks and raven calls, the countless crystals and brilliant moons, the dreams and loves and enduring life: let the winter sing sing — You took me — let it sing on and on, beneath the beautiful stars.”

And see this correspondence in poems between gardeners and poets Ross Gay and Aimee Nezhukumatathil. “It is our hope that some of the pleasure and anxiety of tending these gardens — which is to say, tending to ourselves, our relationships, our earth — comes through in these poems,” says Ross. “There’s bounty, yes. But there’s loss and sorrow too: like a garden, like a life.”

This winter I’m at work on a little art project. It’s a narrative paper quilt.

This is a hand sewn work based on women who, like me, are into art and math/science/nature. I’m interested in their experiences to better understand my own.

I’m working with an uneven nine-block quilting pattern. This is my first experiment with quilting, which I see as a deeply personal art form created by women to reflect collective experiences, imagery, and ideas. I’ve chosen to work with paper because I love paper, but also because it’s a flexible medium that serves new and mature ideas equally well. The work is fragmented, patchworked, patterned, and layered. Each quilt block is inspired by the women featured in the project. Here’s one part of a nine-block square:

The women inspiring my paper quilt include:

Jenn Rossmann (Engineer and Fiction Writer)
Chawne Kimber (Mathematician and Quilter)
Armen Elliot (Photographer and Investigator)
Anita Collins (Geneticist and Artist)
Lauren Rosenthal (Artist and Environmentalist)
Mary Shafer (Weather Expert and Writer/Artist)
Louise E. Jefferson (Cartographer and Artist) (1908-2002)
Mary Vaux Walcott (Naturalist and Botanical Painter) (1860-1940)

I’ve interviewed all of these women over the last six months. (I’ve imaged conversations with Louise Jefferson and Mary Vaux Walcott since they are no longer alive). Most of these interviews are ready to read on my website, and the rest will be posted soon. In the next issues of this newsletter, I’ll be showcasing some of the women featured in this project, as well as their work in arts and sciences. So stay tuned!

In other news, maybe you’ve heard my first novel is debuting on April 22, 2017 (on Earth Day). Here’s a picture of the cover:)

If you’d like to read a little about it, please see this. My book will be available for pre-order beginning February 23, 2017. If you pre-order, please send me an email through my website with your mailing address and I’ll send you a small thank you gift:)

And finally, on a related note, I’ll be teaching a fiction workshop at this conference in February 2017. If you’re local to eastern, Pennsylvania, please consider attending even if you don’t think of yourself a writer, yet. This conference promises to be full of creative and compelling ideas for most anyone.

Thanks for reading!
xoxo,
Kate