Tent (post-nomadic) 4
It just came to me. I had this nascent thought: a tent. I've learned to listen to these thoughts, to trust the "discovery through making" and to seek to ignore the disquieting voices of self doubt that regularly tell me how much I suck an can't go shit, or that all my best work is behind me. Sure, I know this intellectually isn't true (most of the time), but emotionally, it's a real issue. Not just for me, mind you: I reckon it's the human condition. [Look at Natalie Goldberg's "The Trouble with the Editor," from Writing Down the Bones; gospel!
I worked on this piece over the course of one and a half years over the course of the pandemic. It's a quintessentially pandemic piece: during the early stages, while we we in a more strict lockdown, it was a form I could do at home: I had fabric & a sewing machine, and I could work in my living room. I also converted my garage into a welding and woodworking studio.
Too, I listened to a LOT of WXPN (out of Philly) radio and a lot of podcasts, especially Alie Ward's Ologies. Those two things and making art got me through. Actually, as a tenured faculty member, I was hugely fortunate to have a stable income and a very supportive university. I actually got much more time in the studio being out of the office.
These were also processed I could work on with Covid-19. Sewing wasn't too taxing, so I did it through out the several weeks of my illness (with a lot of naps, too, mind you).
