For months, I’ve been working on an artistic, spiritual response to violence in our culture and politics.  It’s timely to share what might be my bravest art yet– this fabric art called Cataclysm— and a brand-new 7-minute Cataclysm Art Process video clip on the making and meaning of the image.

Both the video and image are rather intense commentary, yet to me they are full of hope that the power of breakdown offers us new possibilities in the long run.  Oh how we need that kind of imagination right now– ecologically, culturally, religiously, and in just about every arena of our lives.  I’m deeply disappointed by the increasing violence and corruption in our political system, wondering how and when it will fall apart– maybe even with our help– to allow fresh justice, compassion, and leadership to emerge.

I’ll keep this post short hoping you’ll watch the video.  It’s home-made, for sure, but I worked hard on it, and I think you’ll enjoy seeing the photos of how I created and then tore apart the fabric elements of the piece.  Yep, it’s all fabric. Yep, I built a colonial mansion and made trilobites.  Yep, this is the first time I’ve ever used a gun or bombs in my art.  And yep, I shredded all those pieces to make a point– we can join the power of Cataclysm to dismantle whatever does not serve life as a whole, then out of the raw materials from the breakdown we might weave something new.

This Cataclysm image joins my Resilience Project series, along with the other more obviously inspiring principles I’ve sketched in watercolor, like Emergence, Allurement, and Centration.  Check out my other just-finished art quilt, Seamlessness, representing the generative space out of which everything comes and in which everything is connected!  (This science stuff still bends my mind and opens my heart.)

I can hardly wait to keep working on this ambitious project to complete 11 fabric art quilts embodying each of the Powers of the Universe qualities!  I’ll appreciate your encouragement and support….

With blessings as it all unfolds,

Melanie