Praise Song
This piece brings together different aspects of my connection with the natural world. The prayer sticks that send their songs (gratitudes) up to the spirit realm are made from cup plant stems, collected in the fall from local prairies. Their hollow stems are square and woody, and have long caught my imagination. They are wrapped in sheep’s wool that I spun into (rather uneven) yarn over 40 years ago, and dyed with natural materials such as bloodroot, goldenrod, calendula, parsley, thyme, iron, and fermented indigo. It is a pleasure to let these old dyeing experiments come see the light of day, and in such a praise-worthy setting. I peeled the bark that contains the sticks from a just-cut tree, and as it dried, it curled itself into a heart shape. The purple stones are Baraboo quartzite, gathered one by one and treasured as reminders of our nearby hills.
Bio
The praises or prayers are held in the heart, and in the skin of the tree. The different colors, which come from different elements of the earth, call and bow to all forms of life.
Beverly Gordon is an artist, writer and teacher who has long been passionate about “deep seeing,” and helping people appreciate both the material and inner, intuitive worlds. She was a professor in the Design Studies department at the University of Wisconsin-Madison (her PhD is in Design History), and in retirement, her art practice is increasingly vibrant. Her work is an ongoing adventure and a deep engagement with the natural world. Much of it involves re-contextualization (putting things together in unexpected new ways) and much of it draws on the detritus of nature–materials such as bone, shell, barks, kelp, bark and driftwood—which is given new life as it is re-imagined and reworked.It involves looking closely and continually seeing with “new” eyes. The results often have a mythic quality that suggests a deep spiritual language. Beverly has exhibited in such venues as the Ruth Davis Design Gallery, the Overture Center, Capitol Lakes, UW Hospital, and the Madison Art Hunt, and is looking forward to upcoming exhibits and teaching experiences in Australia.