The move continues today...and I'm touching up some of the paint above the fireplace and beside the built-in bookcase in the front room. I have finishing work to do on the black walnut, which I'm avoiding by working on the move stuff...but I'll get to it later today.

I mentioned Jacob yesterday...my nephew who's had two tours in Iraq now. He's combat camera--and when he's in civilian live (he's Army Reserve) he's also a photographer. The tapestry I said was his, and that's currently in the Artisans Center of VA exhibit, is based upon a photograph he'd taken of a friend of his. The tapestry is called "Jacob's Guitar" and I wove it for him. It was on the loom almost a year because I was using it as a demonstration piece in several different places. He didn't see it finished before he left for Iraq in the fall of 2006, but did see it on the loom and liked it, I think. When the exhibit's over maybe he'll finally get the tapestry in his possession!

I'm searching for a title for the black walnut tapestry and have come upon these two quotes, both from Chapter 4 of the Gospel According to Mary Magdalene. The title of the roots tapestry also came from the Magdalene Gospel. The two are:

v 27...to the essence of every nature....

v 31 That is why I said to you, Be of good courage, and if you are discouraged be encouraged in the presence of the different forms of nature.

Now, the meaning of "nature" in the Gospel may be referring to the nature of man...I don't know since I haven't read explanations of the reference. However, the sense of what I'm trying to portray through my use of images from nature is very much contained in both quotations. In fact, the black walnut has signified the cycle of seasons to me as I've worked on it. In fact, the image has grown through a complete season, from scans of leaves I did last fall, to the photographs of the tree I took last winter when the limbs were stark and skeletal, then the drawing/painting I did as I searched for the design during the late winter and early spring. I began the tapestry in April when the catkins and the leaves came out, was working on it in late summer when the first walnuts began to fall...then the leaves were yellowing, the walnuts being broken by squirrels and the hulls left in the yard...and the image changed as the seasons progressed. I've never altered a design so much before as I've worked on a tapestry and I was quite uncertain how it would look when unrolled.