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
Alice Henley
5/30/2015 09:42:18 am

You posted this just seconds after I was trying to congeal some thoughts about a recent road trip where after seeing an exhibition some very rare ( for our part of the world) Renoir's, Degas, and other lessor known Impressionists, MY most lasting impression was the thirty mile detour back by Moose River Road - a Road of most elegant forests that seems to be somehow ghostly. I do see a few Adirondack style cottages half hidden along the way. But I never see people there.

Reply
Amy Meissner link
5/30/2015 11:41:06 am

Alice, Amazing that you saw amazing masterpieces, yet the most poignant part of the journey was an unpopulated ghost forest. It must have been speaking more to your soul than the Impressionists were...that in itself is poignant.
XO
Amy

Reply
Lorie link
5/30/2015 09:52:48 am

You've been busy! Every stitch is a story.

Reply
Amy Meissner link
5/30/2015 11:42:42 am

Lorie,
You've been busy stitching stories, too--
XO
Amy

Reply
Cheryl Martin link
5/30/2015 10:09:20 am

Thank you for this post. It makes me want to get out of the city and go exploring.

Reply
Amy Meissner link
5/30/2015 11:44:27 am

Cheryl,
And here I wanted to get to a city and buy some new shoes...darn that greener grass.
XO
Amy

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Marti
5/30/2015 09:43:20 pm

The slimy bag of treasures, gold, silver, ruby, etc. is it's own reliquary, brought back with devotion and love to share in the memory of that day...maybe echoing the wondrous stitching on your cloths. The rusty what-evers beg to have cloth draped over them, to rub, and release and mark what the traveling eye found.

Reply
Amy Meissner link
5/31/2015 10:14:23 am

Marti,
I agree! I was so wishing I had something other than Gortex to dip into the briny orange sludge at the bottom of those mine carts. Next time I'm bringing a bag of white cloth.
XO
Amy

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Roxanne Lasky link
5/30/2015 09:54:10 pm

Hi Amy,
Moving and poetic as always. Your son believes in his treasure like I do - sometimes at the cost of losing my expensive hair product at airport security because the x-ray sees that rusty shard in the suitcase. Keep traveling!

Reply
Amy Meissner link
5/31/2015 10:16:30 am

Roxanne,
Oh dear! Contraband rusty objects! You'd think TSA would be sympathetic to the artist's plight. Maybe they think you're going to run around giving everyone tetanus with your rusty shard....
XO
Amy

Reply
Mo Crow link
6/4/2015 12:13:44 am

what a wonderful body of work Amy, have a great opening night & sell heaps!

Reply
Amy Meissner link
6/4/2015 09:33:48 am

Mo--Thank you so much!
XO
Amy

Reply
Tammy link
6/4/2015 03:43:57 am

So much I miss for not coming over and reading other's blogs. I so love seeing your work which is exquisitely delicious to my eyes. If I spent the time reading the blogs I love I would never get a single thing done. And dang I loved the rusted things .. and I do hope you'll bring some white cloth to soak in rusting mine carts while you do some exploring. They would have quite a story to tell. Your work actually inspires me to find a better framework for telling my own stories. You are quite a master at it!!! Keep up the wonderful words and stitches.

Reply
Amy Meissner link
6/4/2015 09:36:50 am

Tammy,
Thank you for opting to read my work rather than getting all that important life stuff done. That means a lot.

Also, I'm all about "tweaking the framework" to tell a good story.
XO
Amy

Reply
Diane Ostdiek
6/20/2015 01:23:06 am

sitting here in the state of Nebraska, your blog gave me a breath of fresh mountain air. Loved the pictures and poetry with it. thanks.

Reply
Suzanne Knudsen
10/7/2015 10:32:41 am

Amy..I love your art..so awesome, I also love seeing the photo`s of the kiddo`s and the comments they make, A 100 dollars for sure.Did you get a necklace?Can I get on a list when you have a show? I have a rock that my daughter found on the mud flats in Hope in the middle of my fireplace I made, she charged me 100 bucks to use it..she was about 8..It was worth it.Hugs to you all Suz

Reply
Amy Meissner link
10/8/2015 11:43:35 am

Hi Suzy!
So fun to hear from you here -- we think about you all the time and hope you are well. I will be posting about shows on Facebook -- the next one is coming up in February, a solo show at Alaska Pacific Univeersity's ConocoPhillips Gallery in Grant Hall. Email me you address and I'll mail you a lovely postcard!
XO
Amy

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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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