““We must make our lives as we sew, stitch by stitch.” ~ Quote by Marceline Desbordes-Valmore
The first stirrings of spring are in the air and I’m both excited and a little apprehensive as our human world and nature start coming to life again. Like everyone else, I’m tired of being confined and restricted, yet I can’t help worrying we may be trying to hasten a process that needs to unfurl according to its own pattern and rhythm.
Nature’s cycle of life, death and rebirth serves a purpose; no step can be skipped or rushed. The seed beneath the ground cannot be forced to germinate before conditions are right, any more than a human heart that is grieving can be told to “get over it”.
Our journey through Covid has been a collective trauma, complete with its attendant extremes of fanaticism and fatalism. For many though, it has been an opportunity to withdraw into a cocoon of self-made safety, one that is full of discoveries of what is most essential to soul and spirit.
As an artist, solitude and quiet are essential to my creative process, so plenty of both this past year has been a blessing, allowing me time to explore new ideas that might not otherwise have grown wings and learned to fly.
The trick to navigating this passage has been patience, yet I frequently chastise myself for not having accomplished more. In a few short weeks though, nature will start to bud and blossom, the perfect reminder that her magic doesn’t occur all at once or suddenly appear out of nowhere … so why should ours?
For the most part, my winter was focused on guiding a large cohort of students through a new six-week online course, Illuminating the Cave of the Heart. The transformations that came out of it were pure alchemy, a beautiful and slow unfurling of natural magic. The stunning "perseverance" word art to the right was created during that amazing process by one of the participants, Janet Egan.
Concurrent with tending my flock of students, I have been preparing for a retrospective art show of old and new works that, fingers crossed, will be able to go forward during the month of May to celebrate my ten-year anniversary at the Alton Mill Arts Centre. I have also been developing a new online learning portal called The Artist’s Circle (more on both of those later).
Each of these projects is a major undertaking so when I get down about “not having done enough” I have to give myself a shake. Not only do such grand ideas first have to be conceived, they need to gestate as well. Like seeds, every project has its own timeline that cannot be rushed.
When I haven't had the energy for original work, many of my evenings have been occupied with another time-oriented activity - counted cross-stitch. It’s rather “old-fashioned”, but I find the rhythmic process of pulling threads in and out, and over and under, very meditative and comforting.
Like my own creative “seeds”, the threads in a cross-stitch first have to be carefully sorted and separated, the colours aligned with their corresponding symbols, then correctly stitched according to a predetermined pattern into their proper places. Each thread eventually weaves its part in a greater overall picture, one that is not immediately visible, but rather slowly revealed over time, stitch by stitch.
Along the way tangles need to be straightened out, mistakes have to be unpicked and redone, and sometimes, I simply get disoriented by the complexity of counting and recounting all those tiny little squares.
Progress can seem very slow. Yet a little patch, here and there does get completed until, at some point, when the fabric is spread out, I can see just how much I have accomplished. That’s when I also realize each tangle represents a challenge worked through and each mistake a learning opportunity. The finished piece becomes all the richer for these lessons in patience and perseverance.
At this point I have done numerous small cross-stitches, namely bookmarks, which are all now happily in use. But there is one larger project that has been ongoing.
When my mother passed away eleven years ago, among her craft things I discovered a cross-stitch kit she had started but never completed. The image is of a mother wolf and her three pups, which I suspect she chose because it reminded her of herself and her own three children. Interestingly though, she had only finished half of the wolf mum and not quite one of the pups, as you can see in the photo.
For a long time, I kept the piece tucked away but about a year and a half ago I got the feeling I needed to finish it, especially given my own special relationship with wolves. It felt like a sacred act to be picking up where my mother left off, so I asked for her blessing. And for her guidance too, because oddly, there was no photo of what the finished piece should look like, only a chart to follow with little symbols mapping out, in a very unartistic manner, the multitude of shifts in the pattern’s colour and shading.
The piece is quite large and very challenging, so needless to say, it requires patience. And I am still working on it – both the piece and the patience.
When the going gets tough, I put it aside and tackle a smaller project I can finish relatively quickly. And sometimes a problem needs to be worked through, such as when I realized there wasn’t going to be enough embroidery floss to complete it. Perhaps my mother had mistakenly used three strands instead of two, since along with no photo, there were no instructions either. Whatever the case, several trips to the craft store were required to try and match the colours, something that was also a lesson in perseverance.
What I also began to notice is how different my stitching is from my mother’s. On the front, this is barely noticeable; my work seamlessly merges with hers. On the reverse, however, is a different story. The stitching done by my highly organized and very accomplished mother is distinctly unique from my own and, surprisingly, a lot “messier”!
The reverse side of the wolf cross-stitch reveals the differences in my mother's stitching (adult wolf right) and a wolf pup I stitched (left).
Cross-stitch is a bit like our lives. The pattern on the front represents what we show to the world, the side of us that bravely goes about our day-to-day, appearing, for all intents and purposes, “well put together”. The backside reflects our inner world, with all its feelings of uncertainty, its loose ends and second-guessing. It’s bound to look a bit messy. Because life is messy. Our thoughts are messy. Self-doubts, anxieties, frailties, and other human foibles are always present, although sometimes not always apparent to others.
Times of challenge, especially, require that we put on a brave front. My mother survived World War II in London, England during the Blitz, so as I stitch, I can feel her gently reminding me of what she lived through and the resilience of the human spirit. Her experience helps me put our current challenges in proper perspective and within the cross-stitch wolf family she has left a map of how to navigate such long and perilous periods in time.
We have many such maps available to us, made by both the living and those now in the Otherworld. Ultimately though, it is up to us to figure out how to complete the section of the journey assigned to us, the best way that we can. Completions and new beginnings are rarely abrupt. Just as signs of spring start occurring long before the first green shoots appear, any transformative passage is usually preceded by a period of “stitching”. And even though the destination may be unclear at times, it is in our nature to eventually find our way there.
So I am patiently persevering through the wolf cross-stitch, just as I am persevering through my own creative endeavours. (You can see from the photo that I have completed all of the wolves and am now working on the background).
And I’m vowing to stop beating myself up for not doing “enough”, because whether it is a seed beneath the ground or a stitch in time, everything has its rhythm and its season.
As one of my favourite writers Christine Valters-Paintner says: “This is the heart of our relationship to time – first, experiencing its cyclical rhythms so that we don’t experience ourselves as rushing toward deadlines and the end of things, but always moving toward new beginnings as well. Second, a more expansive and present way of being in the world, where we might touch and taste eternity more often.”
Like those who have gone before, we too will eventually look back on the pandemic and our current challenges and see them as stitches in time, threads woven into the fabric of a much bigger picture. However big, or small, or messy, or precise, those stitches won’t be nearly as important as the maps and messages we too will leave behind, hidden within the threads of our lives, to one day be picked up and woven by others into theirs. ~ CJ Shelton
And now, a little about some of those other projects I’ve been working on …
Full Circle Illuminating the Art of CJ Shelton
This May is my ten-year anniversary at The Alton Mill Arts Centre so I am thrilled to be marking it with a special retrospective art show in the Falls Gallery, the home of my very first studio.Returning to this beautiful space overlooking the waterfall brings me “full circle” and as I look back at all that has transpired and transformed over the last ten years, my circle is indeed “full”, in more ways than one.
The show runs Wednesday April 28 to Monday May 24, 2021, so I do hope you will drop by for a look or join me for a celebratory reception on Saturday May 1. More details will be announced closer to the date. The Artist’s Circle Almost ready to launch! I'm working on a new online learning platform called The Artist’s Circle with the goal of building another nurturing space for creativity, connection and nature appreciation to flourish, this one online and a “virtual” studio where we can learn and make art together, regardelss of what's going on in the world!
It's "birthing" is taking a little longer than anticipated so although I had hoped to launch it with this newsletter, the official announcement won't be going out for another couple of weeks yet. In sync with spring's arrival! If you would like to be added to that list or have questions about how it’s going to work, feel free to email me at artist@dancingmoondesigns.ca. The Way of the Wheel Mentorship Program Introductory Session Sat. March 27 Another incredible journey around nature’s Great Wheel of Life begins its next cycle with an Introductory Session on March 27 (rescheduled from February).
If you are striving to bring more balance into your life, this one year long program will let you discover and live the shamanic path of nature-wisdom and self-healing while being supported by myself and a dedicated group of like-minded journeyers.To read more about the Way of the Wheel click here. Note that entry into this program is only once a year so this will be the only opportunity in 2021 to join. The Alton Mill is now OPEN! In-Studio Drawing and Acrylic Painting Classes Resuming soon!
The Alton Mill Arts Centre is open again and back to regular hours after a 3-month lockdown. So although strict safety measures and capacity restrictions are still in place, we are happy to be inviting the public back to our galleries and studios. In-person classes and workshops however are still on hold until Peel Region moves into the Red Zone (hopefully soon!), The Mystic’s Circle ONLINE Monthly Spiritual Discussion & Gathering
If you are intrigued by "higher level" perspectives and spiritual topics, The Mystic's Circle might be right for you. We meet online via Zoom every third Thursday of the month.
To be put on the notification list, you can email me at artist@dancingmoondesigns.ca to have your name added. I look forward to more creating and learning with you as we slowly unfurl into spring and all the joy and blessings that come with it.
In gratitude,
CJ Shelton Artist, Instructor & Facilitator
Dancing Moon Designs Illuminating the Creative and Spiritual Life
The first stirrings of spring are in the air and I’m both excited and a little apprehensive as our human world and nature start coming to life again. Like everyone else, I’m tired of being confined and restricted, yet I can’t help worrying we may be trying to hasten a process that needs to unfurl according to its own pattern and rhythm.
For the most part, my winter was focused on guiding a large cohort of students through a new six-week online course, Illuminating the Cave of the Heart. The transformations that came out of it were pure alchemy, a beautiful and slow unfurling of natural magic. The stunning "perseverance" word art to the right was created during that amazing process by one of the participants, Janet Egan.
At this point I have done numerous small cross-stitches, namely bookmarks, which are all now happily in use. But there is one larger project that has been ongoing.
So I am patiently persevering through the wolf cross-stitch, just as I am persevering through my own creative endeavours. (You can see from the photo that I have completed all of the wolves and am now working on the background).
I'm working on a new online learning platform called The Artist’s Circle with the goal of building another nurturing space for creativity, connection and nature appreciation to flourish, this one online and a “virtual” studio where we can learn and make art together, regardelss of what's going on in the world!
The Alton Mill is now OPEN! 
