patterns vol. 1
July 2024
Those of us in the northern hemisphere are soaking in the joys of summer this month, trying to pretend that these long days will last forever. If you are like me, you savor the moments you find watching water and sky, feeling the warmth of the sun on your skin. Sitting on the dock, whether it be on a lake or a river, is marination time. Reflection time that lets insights and wisdom deep inside me bubble up to the surface to be discovered.
It was almost a year ago now, in a moment like this, that the idea for pattern making was born. What if? I wondered.
I penned the concept and got the courage to ask my dear friend Dee Thomas-Butler to help me set up this site. Johnny Miller bravely agreed to let me use his art as a home page.
And then, almost like a prayer in the wind, I spread the word to a few other artists, dreamers, and change makers. Would they want to play?
I shared seeds of inspiration, my best take at describing a pattern and pattern maker, and waited to see what would happen.
It felt like I threw a line off the dock to see what might bite. Some days nothing comes, but to my delight they bit.
The work below is what emerged. Art and stories, sense-making that, in most cases, we are only just learning to say to ourselves.
In our first volume of patterns, you will read stories of living on the edges of what is known and comfortable. And of how the patterns of our lives bend and twist, tighten and loosen as we grow older. You will explore the idea that making art and living a life of intention can be intimately connected. You will see how who we are with, and the health of our earth shapes us. And I hope you will be reminded of how beautiful it is to be human (or shall I say wild animal or maybe earthling?).
Finally, we will remind you that we are just getting started. We will call you in.
Please enjoy, and stay in touch.
Warmly,
Jessica — along with the intrepid Dee, Johnny, Dana, Anne, Laura, Kelci, Kevin, Sandra and Annie.
A Woman Who Wishes She Had Legs Like Tina Turner
WRITING. Jessica Kiessel
Who am I now? I imagine a life lived wildly, in all its fullness.
Backyard Boundaries
WRITING. Anne Gienapp
Could this edge be a beginning? Anne explores the magic of edge spaces in nature and her life.
Patterns: Some disordered thoughts
WRITING. Dana Kaminstein
Dana sees patterns everywhere and traces them over the course of a lifespan —from order to disorder.
Good Things are Always Possible
IN DIALOGUE. Dee Thomas-Butler
Dee shares the importance of keeping record and the power of our attention as she reflects on the freedom that comes from being an entrepreneur.
On Becoming an Artist: Process as pattern
ART & WRITING. Kelci Price
What if art, and who we are, is about how we live rather than what we make?
Feeling potential, Making it real
ART & WRITING. Laura Lehman
Laura finds moving from a faint idea through the messy process of making, into something finished ‘enough’ to be a gateway to becoming.
You’re Doing It Wrong If You Like Everything
WRITING. Kevin Hong
Sometimes we taste things we want to spit out. Would you feel you have lived a full life, a life of adventure, if you only tried things you liked?
Dogs, Cows, and the Human Heart on Golf Course Road
WRITING. Sandra Wegmann
How can we listen across difference if our lives are defined by expectations?
Land Thief
ART & WRITING. Annie Norbeck
If we listened to the land, what would she have to say?
For the Love of Crows
WRITING. Jessica Kiessel
What if our work is to bear witness to the wonder and suffering around us?
The Community I Have
WRITING. Jessica Kiessel
The US Surgeon General has said we are in an epidemic of loneliness. Re-enmeshing ourselves will take time and intention. But rather than despair, what if we recognized and focused on the latent potential of our communities?
Thank you for joining us. Let’s stay in touch.
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If you liked patterns vol. 1, please subscribe. We promise to send you an email only a couple times a year.
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We will keep creating and posting on an irregular rhythm as we weave in additional contributors.
Check back in — or wait until the end of the year when we will send you patterns vol. 2. , if you have subscribed.
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Want to share your thoughts, send us feedback, lend a hand or, heck, even contribute?
Well, what are you waiting for?
