We spent a week in Costa Rica this past April. We flew into San Jose, then boarded a small plane to fly south, almost to Panama, to Gulfito. We spent a week hiking the rain forest, rappelling down waterfalls, eating glorious food, and wandering the beach.
This piece is inspired by that trip. One of the last wild places. We need more of them.
Interested in my art, my writing, my poetry, or learning more about bringing consistent joy and ease into your life? Then let’s talk!
Contact me to schedule: * An IRL or virtual coffee * A private (IRL or virtual) showing of my art
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Life is full of ebbs and flows. I’m in an ebb state these days, my production and creativity rates steady but low and slow. For six months, I worked on my latest Feeling, letting the work guide me where it wanted to go. Appropriately enough for this piece – (Feeling) Intuitive.
As I’ve done with work in the last couple of years, I’ve added acrylic paint to the art piece, using it to convey the feeling along with the fiber. I think it’s time to end that practice and return to the fiber roots, letting the fabric speak all on its own.
Intuitive represents the spark and energy felt when intuition strikes, often bold and bright. But pay attention for the quieter messages you receive. They’re often more powerful and carry more weight.
(Feeling) Intuitive Hand painted with acrylic paint on commercial fabric, raw edge fused applique, densely machine stitched.
With joy and ease…
Come back and visit again one day soon — I’ll have new work to share. Until then, listen for the messages the Universe or your Higher Power sends you every day. There’s always something you need to know.
Interested in my art, my writing, my poetry, or learning more about bringing consistent joy and ease into your life? Then let’s talk!
Contact me to schedule: * An IRL or virtual coffee * A private (IRL or virtual) showing of my art
If you enjoyed this art piece and the essay, and it feels aligned, please share on social media or via email. If you liked it, someone you know will probably like it too!
As we slid into spring this year, I felt pulled to return to my Feelings Series. When I stepped away from creating feelings out of fiber (although that never really stopped – everything I create comes from my feelings), I’d paused the series on an anabolic emotion – Joy. My pattern is to alternate between anabolic and catabolic feelings, so this meant my next piece needed to reflect lower energy.
“Weary” was chosen.
This piece started out larger in design and shape. As I worked my way through the stitching phase (the longest part of my process), I realized it was making me weary trying to figure out how to hang it without the lower portion flopping off the wall. In a move I’ve never made, I sliced the piece in half, then overlaid the two sections to create a more cohesive work of art.
Weary as originally designed.
I love the end result much more than the initial design.
Weary represents woman, weighed down by society and the work it takes to be seen and heard. May women continue to lift each other up so we feel less weary, less worn, and more connected to all of humanity and our blessed planet.
Interested in my art, my writing, my poetry, or learning more about bringing consistent joy and ease into your life? Then let’s talk!
Contact me to schedule: * An IRL or virtual coffee * A private (IRL or virtual) showing of my art
If you enjoyed this art piece and the essay, and it feels aligned, please share on social media or via email. If you liked it, someone you know will probably like it too!
New work! I recently completed (Feeling) Depression so today I’m sharing photos of this new textured fiber painting. I’m also sharing a little about my most recent experience with depression and the valuable lesson I learned from this feeling.
(As I always do, I’ve written a poem that goes with this piece. To read it, please visit my poetry website – www.piningforpoetry.com.)
I’ve experienced depression my whole life and have been fortunate to be able to manage it without the aid of medication (although I have always remained open to taking an antidepressant if the depression became persistent).
My depressive episodes typically only last a few days. Shifting myself up and out of the grey blue space was managed by focusing my attention on something outside myself. This practice worked for years.
Until recently.
I don’t know if it’s this pandemic year, or relocating across country in the midst of said pandemic, or general loneliness, or something more that produced an extended sink into the depths of depression this past summer. It’s likely some combination of all of these. All I really know is I began to feel blue in late summer and it evolved into feeling grey as summer became fall. The grey space remained until mid-October.
During that time, I kept showing up for my business. I kept showing up for my art. I kept showing up for myself and for those who love me. The one thing that helped me cope with what felt like a lost, lonely broken heart sunk deep within the grey was creating this piece.
I started it in mid-September, when the depression was fierce. As I created this artwork, I immersed myself in what I was feeling. I let tears flow when they came and I sat in the numbness when that’s all I could sense. I chose colors that matched how I felt, surrounding that fuchsia broken heart with all the shades of depression.
I took my time with this fiber painting, stitching when I could, #15minutesatatime, and as I stitched, I found myself rising up from the grey depths into the waves of the blue and eventually into the pure light of delight.
Feelings have so much to teach us, if we just let them. There are lessons to learn even when in the depths of depression. My art practice allows me to examine those feelings and from my study, evolve. Creating Depression out of fiber taught me the true purpose of life: we can choose to live with joy and ease.
And that’s what I’m doing now.
Detail views…
With joy and ease…
Depression is available for purchase for $1800 and would look fantastic on the wall of your home or office (or home office 🙂 ). If you’d like to own this piece, you have two options:
When everything you do feels like a struggle, it’s hard to believe life is supposed to be filled with joy and ease. And yet, that’s the whole purpose of life.
This may look chaotic, all these colors and bits of fabric struggling together, but really, it’s an expression of joy and ease.
If you’re feeling rudderless…
If you’re drowning in that sea of struggle, convinced you’ll never feel joy again, convinced nothing is ever easy, you need support. Support is critical to reconnecting you to purpose. Support is how I did it for myself and it’s what my business is centered around now.
When I was stuck in a place where work and life felt hard, I was depressed, angry, frustrated, and overwhelmed. I was unwilling to really talk to anyone about I how felt because I didn’t want to bring them down into the depths with me.
But this was the wrong approach. That became clear when my negativity began to leach into my relationship with my guy. Something had to change.
My guy knew I was unhappy. It was impossible not to know it, but while he expressed encouragement and gave me hugs, he also grew really tired of hearing me say “It’s fine” when it clearly wasn’t. Really, how fine could it be when I was cranky, angry, and weepy all at the same time? Dinner isn’t particularly delightful when the person across the table pouts the whole time. It’s a wonder he stood for it as long as he did.
He called me on my shit one day and I started talking, sharing my thoughts and feelings about how conflicted I felt. Deep down, I knew nothing was supposed to be as sad and difficult as everything seemed to be but I couldn’t see a way out.
That conversation led to others. As we talked our way through what I was really seeking, I found hope. Once I found hope, I was able to see my situation more clearly. Once I could see clearly, I discovered all the ways I was blocking my own joy and ease.
With clear vision, I hired a coach and was then able to create the mindset shifts I needed to leave struggle behind, in every situation, in every experience, and in every thought. Now, even when I’m doing something I’ve never done before or my day is long and full of work tasks, I feel joy and ease. Consistently. And that makes life amazing.
Getting support…
Start by talking to someone who has your best interests at heart. This can be your partner, another family member, or friend. Keep in mind this person may be biased towards keeping the status quo (because that might be easier for the other person) so give serious thought to who you choose. I started with my guy, but eventually, I knew I needed greater and unbiased support.
Next, consider working with a coach to receive that unbiased support. This is the work I do with my clients, providing a safe space to work through the struggle, opening the mind to discover the blocks, and then helping them create the mindset shifts they need to live a life of joy and ease.
Finally, do the work you need to do to release the perception that everything is a struggle. It’s easier to do this work when you’re supported and encouraged, when you work with someone who can see what you can’t see. You’ll shift much more quickly and the work will be easier to do.
With joy and ease…
If I can go from literally decades of push and struggle to consistently feeling everything is joyful and easy (even the tough stuff), you can too. The whole point of getting support is so you don’t have to keep doing it alone. Give yourself the gift of working with a coach to expedite your shift from struggle to ease.
To discuss commissioning me to make a textured fiber painting specifically for you or someone you love, please schedule an exploratory commissioning conversation and we’ll see what we can create together.
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Hilary Clark Studios 