Comments on: Personal icons - Terry Grant http://raggedclothcafe.com/2008/04/16/personal-icons-terry-grant/ Discussions and ideas about art and textile art Fri, 25 Jul 2008 07:47:35 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=MU By: june http://raggedclothcafe.com/2008/04/16/personal-icons-terry-grant/#comment-1868 june Thu, 17 Apr 2008 16:57:04 +0000 http://junomain.wordpress.com/?p=848#comment-1868 I think there's a difference between the totemic item and revisiting an object or image over and over, although the two might coincide. The revisitation is to move beyond the object or to explore it beyond its obvious being -- art qua art or what the h... do I do in # 9? The totem speaks to us in ways we can scarcely understand. It often harkens back to sheer superstition, but even when we know that, we still feel the power of the totem. My traffic islands, all 11 of them, were an exploration of what the h.... But the crows in my work and my life are totems. I talk to them when I'm wandering alone, I note which trees they like, I was even shooed away by one one day when I wore a black cape -- she thought I was trying to invade her territory. The "exploration" pulls on the rational, I think, and the "totem" pulls out of the irrational. Thanks, Terry, for getting me to think about this. I think there’s a difference between the totemic item and revisiting an object or image over and over, although the two might coincide. The revisitation is to move beyond the object or to explore it beyond its obvious being — art qua art or what the h… do I do in # 9? The totem speaks to us in ways we can scarcely understand. It often harkens back to sheer superstition, but even when we know that, we still feel the power of the totem.

My traffic islands, all 11 of them, were an exploration of what the h…. But the crows in my work and my life are totems. I talk to them when I’m wandering alone, I note which trees they like, I was even shooed away by one one day when I wore a black cape — she thought I was trying to invade her territory. The “exploration” pulls on the rational, I think, and the “totem” pulls out of the irrational.

Thanks, Terry, for getting me to think about this.

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