Well, I was inspired by Thomaz Libertiny and his bee colony. I wanted to do a collaboration with someone from the animal kingdom. Here on Whidbey there are multitudes of slugs and snails. I remembered last winter waking up to glistening trails all over my livingroom rug. Several snails had been at work while I was asleep after escaping from the planter I brought in from the yard. So for a collaborative project: "Ah, perhaps a glistening design on velvet," I thought. The snail agreed to come in if I brought the leaves. I placed a velvet square in a glass pie plate and nestled the leaf with snail inside. By morning there was a glistening path on the velvet which made me notice the lint. Where oh where is the snail? He had climbed out of the pie pan and glued himself onto the lens of my glasses on the counter. OK, so it is 2-Dimensional, not 3-D like the honeycomb vases. But I like the potential of how I might enhance the shimmer pattern. It is a Work-in-progress, and snail has been returned to its garden home for more green leaves. Is this art or a diversion from writing a gazillion job applications?!
I'm thinking of the lesson of the snail and being placed in a new situation not to our choosing. We can just make our path --- make it glistening --- and stay true to ourselves. No hurry. We carry all we need with us, a pureness of being. Those who do not understand may call it slime, but it is evidence of a true path. We may have to make our way across the darkness, but we can get to the other side. We climb out of the dark unknown and maybe into another unknown, but anchor ourselves to tools of seeing. We trust all the while that we will be returned with care to our home.
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