AMY MEISSNER
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The traveling eye 8: Fool's gold

5/30/2015

17 Comments

 
"The eye has to travel."
          Diana Vreeland

Amy Meissner, Reliquary series, from the post The traveling eye 8: Fool's gold. www.amymeissner.com/blog/the-traveling-eye-8-fool's-gold

The eye has to travel, away from technology.
Away from phones and keyboards and roads and rush.

Culross Mine, Prince William Sound, from the post The traveling eye 8: Fool's gold. www.amymeissner.com/blog/the-traveling-eye-8-fool's-gold

To find a century-old claim where someone else's technology still litters the land.

Culross Mine, Prince William Sound, from the post The traveling eye 8: Fool's gold. www.amymeissner.com/blog/the-traveling-eye-8-fool's-gold
Culross Mine, Prince William Sound, from the post The traveling eye 8: Fool's gold. www.amymeissner.com/blog/the-traveling-eye-8-fool's-gold
Culross Mine, Prince William Sound, from the post The traveling eye 8: Fool's gold. www.amymeissner.com/blog/the-traveling-eye-8-fool's-gold
Culross Mine, Prince William Sound, from the post The traveling eye 8: Fool's gold. www.amymeissner.com/blog/the-traveling-eye-8-fool's-gold

Where someone else probably lost their nerve.
More than once.

Culross Mine, Prince William Sound, from the post The traveling eye 8: Fool's gold. www.amymeissner.com/blog/the-traveling-eye-8-fool's-gold
Culross Mine, Prince William Sound, from the post The traveling eye 8: Fool's gold. www.amymeissner.com/blog/the-traveling-eye-8-fool's-gold

Where someone else had their tenacity tested.

Culross Mine, Prince William Sound, from the post The traveling eye 8: Fool's gold. www.amymeissner.com/blog/the-traveling-eye-8-fool's-gold

Their wits frayed.
Their foolishness exposed.

Culross Mine, Prince William Sound, from the post The traveling eye 8: Fool's gold. www.amymeissner.com/blog/the-traveling-eye-8-fool's-gold

The eye has to travel in order to understand the rush of a frenzied search. 
To know the echo of a pick on a mountain,
the breaking apart and boring into,
the flying shards and gasping certainty 

Culross Mine, Prince William Sound, from the post The traveling eye 8: Fool's gold. www.amymeissner.com/blog/the-traveling-eye-8-fool's-gold
Culross Mine, Prince William Sound, from the post The traveling eye 8: Fool's gold. www.amymeissner.com/blog/the-traveling-eye-8-fool's-gold
Culross Mine, Prince William Sound, from the post The traveling eye 8: Fool's gold. www.amymeissner.com/blog/the-traveling-eye-8-fool's-gold
Culross Mine, Prince William Sound, from the post The traveling eye 8: Fool's gold. www.amymeissner.com/blog/the-traveling-eye-8-fool's-gold

(recognizing that the certainty of some is far more certain than the certainty of others, 
and weighs more, too)

Culross Mine, Prince William Sound, from the post The traveling eye 8: Fool's gold. www.amymeissner.com/blog/the-traveling-eye-8-fool's-gold

so that when you make that descent,
that return to your life, your pace, your much more realistic personal goals,

Culross Mine, Prince William Sound, from the post The traveling eye 8: Fool's gold. www.amymeissner.com/blog/the-traveling-eye-8-fool's-gold

you will remember to retain the fever. 

Because it is this fever, this tenacity, this wit, this foolishness, this nerve,
this ring of metal against stone,
this willingness to bear the weight

this ... certainty

that will ultimately drive the work.

Amy Meissner, Reliquary series, from the post The traveling eye 8: Fool's gold. www.amymeissner.com/blog/the-traveling-eye-8-fool's-gold
Amy Meissner, Reliquary series, from the post The traveling eye 8: Fool's gold. www.amymeissner.com/blog/the-traveling-eye-8-fool's-gold
Amy Meissner, Reliquary series, from the post The traveling eye 8: Fool's gold. www.amymeissner.com/blog/the-traveling-eye-8-fool's-gold
Amy Meissner, Reliquary series, from the post The traveling eye 8: Fool's gold. www.amymeissner.com/blog/the-traveling-eye-8-fool's-gold
Amy Meissner, Reliquary series, from the post The traveling eye 8: Fool's gold. www.amymeissner.com/blog/the-traveling-eye-8-fool's-gold
Amy Meissner, Reliquary series, from the post The traveling eye 8: Fool's gold. www.amymeissner.com/blog/the-traveling-eye-8-fool's-gold
Culross Mine, Prince William Sound, Alaska, May 2015.

Detail images from the solo show "Reliquary," June 5-30, 2015, Bunnell Street Arts Center, Homer, Alaska. 
Art photography: Brian Adams

PS. The rusty dock bollards used in the first piece shown in this post did NOT come from this mine, they were found on a beach in 2014; we didn't disturb any of the old equipment ... ok, we sat in some of it. The slimy sack of rocks, however, was taken on this day and is sitting in my garage because those rocks are clearly "full of silver. And gold. And probably rubies and diamonds. And sapphires, too. And they're probably worth about a hundred dollars! And Mom! I can make you a necklace!"


So, if this was mildly interesting and you still have a full cup of tea, you might want to read some other Traveling Eye posts. They have their very own category over there on the side bar because hey, my eye travels and yours should, too.

Let's be clear though:
​wandering eye -- no,
traveling eye-- yes.

I'm just saying.

17 Comments

The traveling eye 7: Ruins

3/13/2015

5 Comments

 
"The eye has to travel."
          Diana Vreeland

The eye has to travel 
when it's been immersed in the darkness of winter.
When snow didn't come in the way snow comes,
          and couldn't brighten in the way it brightens 
          (because damn if that snow didn't go dump itself elsewhere),

          and the retinas need searing technicolor.

Walls of it.

Amy Meissner, Mexican embroidery, from the post The traveling eye: Ruins. www.amymeissner.com/blog/the-traveling-eye-7-ruins

Mountains of it.

Amy Meissner, Mexican embroidery, from the post The traveling eye: Ruins. www.amymeissner.com/blog/the-traveling-eye-7-ruins
Amy Meissner, Mexican embroidery, from the post The traveling eye: Ruins. www.amymeissner.com/blog/the-traveling-eye-7-ruins

Sheets of it.

Amy Meissner, Mexican embroidery, from the post The traveling eye: Ruins. www.amymeissner.com/blog/the-traveling-eye-7-ruins
Amy Meissner, Mexican embroidery, from the post The traveling eye: Ruins. www.amymeissner.com/blog/the-traveling-eye-7-ruins

Did I mention the walls of it?

Amy Meissner, Mexican embroidery, from the post The traveling eye: Ruins. www.amymeissner.com/blog/the-traveling-eye-7-ruins

The eye has to travel because when darkness reaches that unbearable point, in the way darkness does, the eye becomes sluggish. 
Drowsy.
Lazy.
It stops seeing the obvious.

Amy Meissner, Tulum, Mexico, from the post The traveling eye: Ruins. www.amymeissner.com/blog/the-traveling-eye-7-ruins

And goes deep inside itself. 

Amy Meissner, Tulum, Mexico, from the post The traveling eye: Ruins. www.amymeissner.com/blog/the-traveling-eye-7-ruins
Amy Meissner, Tulum, Mexico, from the post The traveling eye: Ruins. www.amymeissner.com/blog/the-traveling-eye-7-ruins
Amy Meissner, Tulum, Mexico, from the post The traveling eye: Ruins. www.amymeissner.com/blog/the-traveling-eye-7-ruins
Amy Meissner, Tulum, Mexico, from the post The traveling eye: Ruins. www.amymeissner.com/blog/the-traveling-eye-7-ruins

And it forgets that the greater part of seeing 
is to stop constantly looking down at one's own work,

Amy Meissner, textile artist, from the post The traveling eye: Ruins. www.amymeissner.com/blog/the-traveling-eye-7-ruins

and to instead, 
look up and be in awe of someone else's.
Someone who is doing more work
         
          for less
          
          with less.

Amy Meissner, Tulum, Mexico, from the post The traveling eye: Ruins. www.amymeissner.com/blog/the-traveling-eye-7-ruins
5 Comments

The traveling eye 6: Reliquary

2/22/2015

5 Comments

 
"The eye has to travel."
          Diana Vreeland
The eye has to travel,
in order to discover what reverence means.

Not because we've been taught this in some church, or in some room, or by some one
and have since forgotten,
but because we are curious about the word. 

Reverence.

Amy Meissner, Reliquary series. From the post The traveling eye 6: Reliquary. www.amymeissner.com

The eye has to travel if one wonders how to instill reverence in the most ordinary things,
the object we step over or toss, 
the thing that in our constant seeing has become
          unseen.

The forgettable rock.
A bit of shell.
The unidentifiable bone.
Someone's cloth.   

Amy Meissner, Reliquary series. From the post The traveling eye 6: Reliquary. www.amymeissner.com

Does one build a vessel?  

Reliquary Chasse with the Adoration of the Magi. The British Museum, London (ca. 1200-30).
Reliquary Chasse with the Adoration of the Magi. The British Museum, London (ca. 1200–30).
Foot of one of the Holy Innocents. The Cathedral of Basel.
Foot of one of the Holy Innocents. The Cathedral of Basel.
Reliquary bust of a female saint (c. 1520-30) possibly made in Brussels, Belgium. Metropolitan Museum of Art -- The Cloisters Collection.
Reliquary bust of a female saint (c. 1520-30) possibly made in Brussels, Belgium. Metropolitan Museum of Art -- The Cloisters Collection.
Susan Danis, Cart. www.susandanis.com
"Cart," by Susan Danis. All Rights reserved.

A frame?

Stavelot Triptych (c. 1156), intended to house pieces of the true cross. Morgan Library & Museum, New York City.
Stavelot Triptych (c. 1156), intended to house pieces of the true cross. Morgan Library & Museum, New York City.
Tiny saint bones, from the Museum of Folk Art and Folk Life, Hellbrunn Castle, Salzburg, Austria.
Tiny saint bones, from the Museum of Folk Art and Folk Life, Hellbrunn Castle, Salzburg, Austria.
Susan Danis, Industrial Coral Reliquary. www.susandanis.com
"Industrial Coral Reliquary," by Susan Danis. All rights reserved.
Susan Danis, Pearl Reliquary, detail. www.susandanis.com
"Pearl Reliquary," detail, by Susan Danis. All rights reserved.

If I say, "This is an object not to be forgotten," will you believe me? I have no scrap of parchment proof. No indication that what I'm showing you is some true relic. You can question the authenticity, but I'm also not asking you to worship.

I'm just asking you to think.

Amy Meissner, Reliquary series. From the post The traveling eye 6: Reliquary. www.amymeissner.com
Amy Meissner, Reliquary series. From the post The traveling eye 6: Reliquary. www.amymeissner.com

All I have to show in my hands is reverence. Time and time and time
          amassed.



Note:

I am newly smitten with the work of Bay Area artist, Susan Danis. Her work is arresting, thought provoking and was used here with permission. I also think her taste in glasses is outstanding. 

Of course.

Someday I have to meet this woman.
Picture
5 Comments

The traveling eye 5: Holding

12/21/2014

6 Comments

 
"The eye has to travel."
                       Diana Vreeland
The eye has to travel, 
in order to observe how best to hold the things we love,

Amy Meissner, production, 2014. From the post The traveling eye 5: Holding. www.amymeissner.com/blog/the-traveling-eye-5-holding

much the way nature does.

Amy Meissner, Prince William Sound, 2014. From the post The traveling eye 5: Holding. www.amymeissner.com/blog/the-traveling-eye-5-holding
Amy Meissner, Prince William Sound, 2014. From the post The traveling eye 5: Holding. www.amymeissner.com/blog/the-traveling-eye-5-holding

The eye has to travel,
in order to consider the wayward journey of things not of one's land.

Amy Meissner, Prince William Sound, 2014. From the post The traveling eye 5: Holding. www.amymeissner.com/blog/the-traveling-eye-5-holding
Amy Meissner, Prince William Sound, 2014. From the post The traveling eye 5: Holding. www.amymeissner.com/blog/the-traveling-eye-5-holding
Amy Meissner, Prince William Sound, 2014. From the post The traveling eye 5: Holding. www.amymeissner.com/blog/the-traveling-eye-5-holding

Not to judge,
but to remember that there are forces more enormous, more powerful and further beyond our control than the minor acts of what are first assumed to be irresponsibility. 

And to also remember that we are all guilty of these accumulations, 
these small, yet mindless acts of discarding.

Amy Meissner, Prince William Sound, 2014. From the post The traveling eye 5: Holding. www.amymeissner.com/blog/the-traveling-eye-5-holding
Amy Meissner, Prince William Sound, 2014. From the post The traveling eye 5: Holding. www.amymeissner.com/blog/the-traveling-eye-5-holding

The eye has to travel, inward, in order to solve the challenge of preserving the things we love.

Amy Meissner, production, 2014. From the post The traveling eye 5: Holding. www.amymeissner.com/blog/the-traveling-eye-5-holding
Amy Meissner, production, 2014. From the post The traveling eye 5: Holding. www.amymeissner.com/blog/the-traveling-eye-5-holding

Not because of some need for nostalgia. Or sentimentality.
But because these objects deserve reverence. 

Amy Meissner, production, 2014. From the post The traveling eye 5: Holding. www.amymeissner.com/blog/the-traveling-eye-5-holding
Amy Meissner, production, 2014. From the post The traveling eye 5: Holding. www.amymeissner.com/blog/the-traveling-eye-5-holding

The things we find deserve to be held.
Even if for a short time.
Even if they are ugly.
Even if the task involved with some of them feels insurmountable.

Amy Meissner, Prince William Sound, 2014. From the post The traveling eye 5: Holding. www.amymeissner.com/blog/the-traveling-eye-5-holding
Amy Meissner, Prince William Sound, 2014. From the post The traveling eye 5: Holding. www.amymeissner.com/blog/the-traveling-eye-5-holding
Amy Meissner, Prince William Sound, 2014. From the post The traveling eye 5: Holding. www.amymeissner.com/blog/the-traveling-eye-5-holding
Amy Meissner, Prince William Sound, 2014. From the post The traveling eye 5: Holding. www.amymeissner.com/blog/the-traveling-eye-5-holding

Because it is through this act of holding
that we learn and teach and discover
the most basic lessons of responsibility.

Amy Meissner, Prince William Sound, 2014. From the post The traveling eye 5: Holding. www.amymeissner.com/blog/the-traveling-eye-5-holding
Summer-long beach clean up, 2014. Prince William Sound, Alaska.
6 Comments

The traveling eye 4: Mystery

9/21/2014

2 Comments

 
I'm working with circle imagery and the containment of loss right now. This wasn't where I intended to go with the piece I'm currently working on, but it's where I've arrived. I can draw in my sketchbook or scribble on little shitty scraps of paper that I then lose, but until I start messing around on the wall with fabrics and bits, the depth of what I'm trying to ask myself isn't fully fleshed. (Mostly what I'm asking is: "What?!" and "No way. Could I do/say/put that in a quilt?" and "Why wouldn't I?" and "Is a quilt the right place for this?" and "Why is it?" and "Why won't it?" and "Why should I?") 

My 5-year-old daughter announced in the doorway: "Mama, you aren't even really down here working. You're just standing there staring at the wall. And why are you whispering? Who are you talking to?" How do you explain to a child, who understands that good, solid work is done with hands and body, that this stillness is also a way to work, that work with the mind never stops?

And the whispering: "That was just me talking to me."

And the mystery of this: "Why do you want to talk to you?" 

Picture

And we can travel to the farthest, darkest corners of our minds, and we can whisper-ask the same questions again and again and think we're coming up with answers, but this, itself, is also a form of circular containment ... of the wrong kind ... and one that we have to claw our way from because it will hold us back. It will keep us seductively safe from asking questions, from looking up and out. We will disappear inside ourselves instead. We may continue to create, but we won't risk.

My last employer and mentor from the clothing design industry, Manuel Mendoza, a couturier from Manila, used to say, "You can't design from inside a box." But more importantly, he said, "Damn it, stop standing there. If you don't just cut the pucking pabric you'll be paralyzed forever. You have to move. Just cut the pucking pabric! Unless it the last pabric in the world, you can always buy more." (I should mention here that this particular 'pucking pabric' was a $500/meter Versace silk print featuring enormous turquoise peacocks or flowers or something that had to overlap and match precisely up the center front for a certain busty client. And I cut it, but I tight cheeked it the whole time, and no I didn't have to buy more fabric. More deodorant, maybe.) 

Then, of course, there's Diana Vreeland, who said: 

"The eye has to travel." 

And we do this
in order to discover that nature almost always provides an answer:

Amy Meissner, the natural world, www.amymeissner.com
Lichen, Prince William Sound, Alaska.

In order to compare maps and learn the landscapes others have already explored:

Junko Oki, Woky Shoten, Japan
Junko Oki, "Woky Shoten," Japan.
Manisha Parekh, Waiting, India.
Manisha Parekh, "Waiting," India.

In order to process
and to go deeper and to connect to something dark and real and split:

Picture
Paula Kovarik, "Same But Not," 2011. Machine pieced and quilted (the artist used one continuous line of stitch per side, representing the singularity of a continuous journey). An exploration of the rift between cultures and races.
Picture
Paula Kovarik, "Same But Not" detail, 2011.

In order to return
probably more than once
with the intent to collect:

Amy Meissner, the natural world, www.amymeissner.com
Lichen, Prince William Sound, Alaska.

In order to 
contain the fear of loss and loss and loss,
and ponder the need to gather and to hold.
Itself, a mystery 
that lies within us all.

Amy Meissner, work in progress, quartz beach stone, wool suiting, silk organza mesh, hand stitch. 2014. www.amymeissner.com
Quartz beach stone, wool pinstriped suiting, silk organza mesh, hand stitch. Work in progress, 2014.
2 Comments
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    Amy Meissner, textile artist. Photo credit Brian Adams, 2013. www.amymeissner.com

    Amy Meissner

    Artist in Anchorage, Alaska, sometimes blogging about the collision of history, family & art, with the understanding that none exists without the other.

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