On the first day of INTERREGNUM the task I chose to do, had an anchor with wings up in the sky...

I've been mulling this task around for months. My son was originally planning it as a task that he, my daughter, and I might all do together, but we couldn't work out a plan and I finally had what I wanted to do.

My life the last few months have felt as if my whole being was being pulled between extremes. I have a bit of pride in my ability to grab on and "hold fast" to what I believe is right (to the point that I've been tempted to have, like many sailors, the words tatoo'd on my knuckles), but recently I've learned that holding tightly isn't always the best mode (I know there are several songs about this, many from the 80's, and I have several of them running simultaneously through the back of my head... thankfully they tend to cancel each other out).

So this image game to me, and I haven't been able to shake it. It is a ludicrous image, totally absurd, but it is so strong that it just sticks. I haven't seen it anywhere else (can't be totally original), so I don't think I've stolen it from anyone (if you've seen something similar, let me know, I'm fascinated).

The image is of an anchor with wings, caught between the decision to Fly Free, as the wings want, or to hold fast with the still connected chain. I drew several pictures, and then for this task I decided to paint a new picture of it.

Acrylic on water color paper, about 9" X 7"

This dichotomy fits so much of life's every day dilemmas, from small ones like get up at 5 or hit the snooze bar again at 9 to Hamlet's "to be or not to be". In fact, I'm having a hard time not seeing a human dilemma that doesn't in some way come to this question... Hold Fast? or Fly Free? As it currently defines my life, I am claiming it as my coat of arms... a reminder of the fact that we're all in the middle of a battle not between good and evil, but simply of desires and their trajectories.

Of course, for this task I need to be able to actually wear the new coat of arms image. I had painted it out nice and pretty, but I can't wear watercolor paper. So, I chose to embroider a little "patch" for myself.



Actually it is kind of a big patch, as the piece of felt is about 9" X 10" or so. I chose to keep the embroidery as simple as possible, more because I left my embroidery floss in McArthur, CA and only had 3 colors of thread available than anything else.

I can do prettier embroidery than this, but I chose not to draw a template first. I hate having pencil or other marks left over on my embroidery when I'm done, and given the nature it is rather hard to wash, so I'm trying to learn to do my embroidery freehand. That's what we have here, and as you can see, things like pretty curve of the bottom of the anchor becomes a bit wobbly if you're not very experienced. Still, I think it came out pretty nicely... at least until I get my embroidery floss back and then I'll see if I can do more. In the meantime, the "patch" is attached to my backpack for all to see.