Back in early November, I shared Threadwinners’ photos of the opening exhibit of the first iteration of the Mandalas for Marinke exhibit at Grab Bag Studio. On November 18th I went to the exhibit myself for a full day of workshops and artist talks; it was an amazing experience and I apologize for not getting more up about it on the blog before now. It’s just that busy time of year!
Here’s my post with photos about my experience of that day but before I begin I want to share a huge thanks to two of the projects’ contributors who came from outside of the city to attend. Cris came all the way from Boston and attended the full events of the day. Claudia came to the evening event, and she has shared a beautiful vlogcast about her experience attending, which I really hope you’ll check out here.
I arrived in the morning with my mom and sister (and my pup Katara) greeted by Natalie from Grab Bag Studio who invited us in to check out the space. It’s a studio art space where they also hold events, and it offers a great opportunity for people attending events to get a sense of how artists actually work. People who haven’t attended open studios sometimes feel like there’s so much mystery: “what is a studio?” so I think this is a great way to showcase the beautiful art of different people, some while it’s in process, in a way that’s accessible.
Alyssa and Liz from Threadwinners arrived shortly thereafter. They are such great creative women, and I continue to be so humbled and honored by all that they have done to help make the art show of this project come to life. They hosted a crochet workshop to teach how to crochet one of Marinke’s mandala patterns. They thought of everything – the right supplies, the right setup, the way they printed out the patterns and additional information. I loved it. There were eight of us there, with vastly different experience in crochet from someone who had never crocheted to those who have crocheted for decades. We sat together, some learning, some working, all conversing about various topics from our lives. I feel like we were casual in some ways but also dropped in and talked about some more emotional mental health things for awhile too. It was the perfect balance and I felt a lot of camaraderie in this room.
The room was transformed during the lunch break to showcase more of the mandalas. There were several areas where they had been laid out on the floor to create comfy rugs, with coziness enhanced by some of the crochet cushions. There were lamps for soft lighting. There was yarn and crochet hooks for people who might want to craft. Over the night there were about two dozen people that came in, most who planned to be there but a few who happened to be passing by and got curious. About half of the people in the room knew how to crochet; the others were artists of various types (although not all of them self-define as artists).
I did an artist talk, sharing a bit about the background of the project and how it came to be here in this space. I spoke mostly about narrative … about the stories that we tell ourselves individually and collectively and how we can work to alter our own narratives in order to make changes in the worlds within and around us. I talked about how so much of this project was the sharing of stories and how together they become a narrative that is more than the sum of its parts – a narrative of crafting to heal, of strength, of resilience, of the sheer difficulty of being human but also the amazing beauty of it, of community. I talked about how crochet can facilitate narrative – how we can use it to meditate in conversation with ourselves or sit in craft circles and share our stories safely while crocheting … but also how there are limitations to narrative because talking about issues only gets us so far and sometimes doesn’t resolve (or may even re-traumatize) the issues we are coping with. Crochet helps there, too, going beyond narrative as a tactile form of simple self-expression that allows us to heal without speaking when that’s what we need. To wrap up, I read aloud Leanne’s story from the book.
While I was there as an artist to share the story, that for me wasn’t the important part. I definitely wanted to convey this message to those who attended, and I hope that this had an impact. But for me, it was so much more touching to hear other people’s stories, to learn about the work that they do. With about two dozen people in the room, there was opportunity for me to meet everyone and really hear a few things from each of them. One man had recently returned from Asia, and we talked about his love of bonsai as an art form and how it has been to return to the Los Angeles area after that experience. Another man who at first I misinterpreted as not being too interested in the project, ended up speaking deeply with me about his interest in process and art/dance in working through pain. I had the beautiful opportunity to meet Shannon Loos of Unfolding Potentials, an art therapist who attended a graduate school similar to mine and who runs inspiring creativity workshops.
Natalie of Grab Bag Studio invited two other people to participate with her in an interpretive movement piece about the project. They had all read the blog posts for Mandalas for Marinke in advance. Then Natalie gave them a prompt at the beginning of the event, and they came together to do an improv piece based on what they had felt in response to the project. I was so touched, and there was a palpable feeling in the room indicating that others were as well. It was amazing to see how they came together and fell apart, how there was pain and isolation and an attempt to help one another and the tragic beauty of our own experiences in the world. They hadn’t planned to speak about the piece after performing but those in the room were curious and they did answer some questions about their process.
The biggest thing for me has been about how Mandalas the for Marinke project has become so much more than just a project of mine. Yes, I came up with the idea and put a lot of hard work into making it come to life. I collected every single submission, catalogued it, did the blog post for it, and stored it. I brought these submissions together into the book and now the art shows. But it could never have happened at all without the contributions from more than 3o0 people around the world. If fewer or more people had contributed mandalas, if they’d chosen different designs, it would have all been different (still special, but different). People authentically shared their stories, poignant messages that I could only curate because of their vulnerability and strength. The book came together in part because I had graphic design help. The art shows could never have come to life without Threadwinners who have added their own voices and creative ideas to make it something special in a new way. Then Natalie and the dancers gave their interpretation, and now there’s the vlogcast from CrochetLuna (linked above), which is yet another medium that has grown from this project. It’s all just so amazing. And wherever it goes from here, I’m touched and humbled and so honored to be at the center of the sum of these parts.