The second edition of Close Your Eyes is complete ...
Since I created links to the previous posts on Close Your Eyes and Close Your Eyes Too, I decided to just show the final two page spreads in this post, A-sides and B-sides ...
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I did do some design mending (Jude Hill's very apt term) on the front page. First I removed the metal snaps (which were too large and too strong), then I removed the double-strand, multi-colored split backstitch lettering and replaced it with a simple single-strand backstitch which is more my style and balanced better on the B-side ...
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Of course, the part I agonized over the most ended up being the part I liked best: the canvas photograph of Meg and Griffin hiding behind a window of rust-dyed muslin, bordered with a frame of asemic orange stitch ...
which is revealed on the B-side as the opening lyrics of Carole King's You've Got a Friend (the first cut on James Taylor's album Mud Slide Slim). It was only as I wrote out the words that the phrase "close your eyes" jumped out at me ... a serendipitous echo ...
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So, Close Your Eyes 2 is now signed, sealed ...
and delivered at last ...
This whole project is so touching. Congratulations for fabricating a true connection point between you and your grandsons. I'm sure they already feel the love and attention you have invested into their books, and they will understand it more consciously as they age. Its just lovely.
ReplyDeleteMy mantra has long been "Food is love" ... to that I have now added "Cloth is love, too"
DeleteLast photo says it all dear Nana: Love, joy, learning, touch, generational memory; these cloth books are such deep treasures, every stitch, color, design and especially the secret flaps revealing mother and child, are filled with heart and just moves me.
ReplyDeleteEqually I wanted to leave a note for Don from your post of March 5th. re the Oklahoma assemblage: (Apologize for getting to this so late.)
Don, I've looked at it several times and everything about your Oklahoma assemblage -the way you used the materials, the hard and sharp metal, the softness of the wrapped cloth, the colors of land and sky, the way you created this piece, speaks to me of attention. It was great that LIz "made you comment on your work" but without your words, the power of this piece, speaks so eloquently to me. You had said that perhaps it all was unintentional but I see this incredible assemblage as made by a man who understands spirit and more than that, feels a connective reverence..
Griff has already started to weave his own story. Last night, as he was looking at one of the B-sides I asked him "What is that?" and he answered, "Rain comes out."
DeleteReverence ... yes
DeleteMarti, Thanks for your thoughtful comments. Words that made my day!
Deletethe last photo Liz!
ReplyDeleteG loves books and singing, so this story is for your songwriter:
DeleteAs he sang "So close your eyes, you can close your eyes, it's all right" G turned back the pages to the sunset, pointed to the sun and improvised, "It is bright. It is bright." And then repeated his invented lyrics several times over, very proud of himself.
have looked here several times...it's so all so SOFT and Loving...the making, the giving,
ReplyDeletethe child's response. It can't get better than this.
Thank you for thinking to make it, for making it, for taking us along with you...
This is such GOODNESS.
love,
I was able to capture a few seconds on video, of G stroking the page, the stitches, as he said "the rain comes out" ... and I realized this book is also a gift to myself
Deleteyes, and isn't that more than even you would ever have imagined....how
Deletehis experience of it becomes something so strong, for you, but also your
beingness with and through him. it is just so so fine....
And it gets better. After we left town on Sunday, Griff "helped" his dad dismantle the crib and build a new "big boy bed." He put the book on his pillow and midway through his nap, Meg reported he must have curled up with it since it was no longer visible on the monitor.
Deletelove the last picture
ReplyDeleteThank you ... I melt every time I look at it
Delete