Imaginal Cells

Imaginal Cells                            2012

Every creative person needs inspiration. Recently, this arrived in three separate doses. First, my friend Lee Wolf---proprietor of The Lobster Shanty in Salem, MA (yum). gave me a bucket full of flat glass that had been collecting dust in his basement for years. He was glad to get rid of it and I was thrilled!

Next, I traveled to Maine to install 11 pieces of work at Dobra Tea in the Old Port in Portland. Closed for the day, the staff of the tearoom were busy cleaning everything from top to bottom and rearranging furniture. During six hours of hanging my art, I was intrigued with the interplay between the simple beauty of the "tea culture" and the bohemian feel of the tearoom itself in this beautiful old Victorian commercial building --complete with all sorts of events-- music, tarot readings, cribbage and a knitting group, to name a few. The staff is fabulous, the culinary offerings wonderful and my art feels like it was born to be there.

Upon returning home, I was prompted to make a new piece, using some of some of Lee's discards along with other materials. It reflects the two distinct feelings of being in the tearoom for the day.

A few days later, here it is. But what to call it? And here's the third inspiration: While visiting a friend at Ye Olde Forte Cabins in Pemaquid, ME, I was given a most beautiful gift--the WE'MOON 2012 calendar, entitled CHRYSALIS from Mother Tongue Ink. It was suggested that I enter some of my work to be included in their 2014 calendar called RADICAL BALANCE. On page 74 is a written piece called "Spring Equinox" by Frodo Okulam, who writes:

     "Recently, I learned that caterpillars have something called 'imaginal cells'--cells that able to imagine becoming a butterfly. In the Chrysalis, the imaginal cells come to life and transform the caterpiller into a bright being of wings and flight.

      At Spring Equinox, 2012, the Chrysalis of the world begins to break open a new age. Each of us who listens to the Earth and all her creatures, celebrates the Goddess, or imagines a new society free from patriarchy and power-over, is an imaginal cell of the transformed world."

So, Imaginal Cells it is: 8" x 10" -- made from Lee's flat glass, blown glass, marbles, copper wire and sea glass and shell from Maine-- it is bursting with hope.