Don't Hide (your shadow side)

That's what I'm calling this piece.

After I posted yesterday, I decided to make the 'b' side of this stitchery into the 'a' side.  There was so much more going on with it. It had more life, more movement.

It was a bit of a leap to do it. To turn the 'right' side down and stitch it to the base and embellish with the 'wrong' side up.

I finished it with a piece of linen warp for hanging strung through the top, an idea that comes from the inspirational Jude Hill.  I am working through her course, Spirit Cloth 101, and this is my first completed piece.

As I worked on this, I thought about things we keep hidden, things we cannot share with others, and sometimes not even with ourselves. Things about ourselves. The side of our consciousness that Jung called Shadow.

Shadow implies darkness and gloom, but this is colorful and somewhat joyful. Still, there was something to hide: a private side with the frayed, uneven edges, the imperfect running stitches, the knots.

It was quite freeing to me to decide to work with the imperfect side. Just as it is freeing to embrace  Shadow, to accept, and even celebrate, those parts of ourselves that we, or others, find imperfect.

 

Of course, now that original back side is the "a" side and there is another "b" side. And I like everything about it.

But I think I shall just leave it unbacked, visible to anyone who cares to look. Or it could be hung with this side facing.