Challenge

Yesterday, I found that it was Tuesday.  Over a week from my last blog post, which means last week came and went without having wound a single bobbin, or sat down to write some reflection upon doing so.  Off I went.  Perhaps in an effort to regain momentum, or in an effort to lend some color to the gray day that was hanging over Knoxville, or to fulfill my promise to not only wind bobbins of soft, heathery, muted colors I went straight over to the spool table and picked the brightest color I saw.  Vermilion.  Shiny, rich, vermilion.  I wound four or five bobbins of that, then some yellow, then green, then a mix of red and orange.
This arresting mix of colors was actually a bit difficult to come by, as it appeared that many of the bright colors had been used up, and there seemed to be many more of the soft, grayish, pinkish colors, which I usually favor.   

Next week I'll be able to sink into those soft colors.

I don't know if it was because I felt like I was playing catch up, or because I was picking these bold colors, but yesterday's winding was not the meditation I have previously fallen into.  I felt hurried and slightly agitated.  My thoughts felt more fleeting and less concrete, but I have been thinking over a couple of things since yesterday.
My harried winding made me think of Rapunzel, wondering in anguish how she would wind straw into gold, which made me start thinking about how familiar we are with textile work as a backdrop to our fairy tales, but without the experience to understand that process.  Sleeping Beauty's sleep is preceded by a prick of a spindle, which she is enticed into using, due to her unfamiliarity with the object.  I found myself wondering if a modern sixteen year old would have the fascination to attempt to spin some yarn, just out of curiosity.  If the Local Industry exhibit is any indication, yes.  Each time I am at the museum, a visitor to the museum actively engages in the exhibit, with curiosity and enthusiasm.  Sometimes, these are people familiar and engaged in the textile world already, but most, it appears to me, are finding fascination with a process that has been removed from their vernacular.  It is unknown to me how much these visitors consider the layers of implications that this show presents.  Labor, time, worth, the textile industry, globalization, economy....
All these layers are one of the reasons I became interested in this project, and why I committed to writing this blog.  I felt (and continue to feel) that week after week I would find some new aspects to uncover.  This week, I uncovered challenge.  It was a challenge to get here, considering this third post belonged to the third week of the exhibit.  It was a challenge to deal with colors that I find counter-intuitive and counter-meditative.  It was a challenge to write this post.  And yet, I relish this challenge.  I struggle often to encourage my students to think of art beyond something to please and comfort, to embrace the challenge.  (You can guess how I might describe this effort.)  What I find alluring about being in the Local Industry room, is the levels of challenge.  There are some heavy concepts here.  There is also this beautiful wall of color.  There is this growing bolt of fabric, made by all those who have given freely to this piece.  This exhibit makes room for all of these levels of interest, engagement, and challenge, from the complex contemplation of local versus global, manufactured versus handmade, to the simple pleasure of a rainbow of color.  It is a good lesson for me to heed, and to allow the challenges I embrace to be balanced by the pleasures I take.