Tradition in evolution.

Standing Stone
by Donna Kallner & Joan Molloy Slack
For this collaboration, Joan sent me a piece from her series of Standing Stones. I loved the energy of the shape, and the subtle mystery of the markings on it. Some of the markings are covered by the looped sheath I stitched, but they're still there, echoed in the shapes of the motifs. Like mysterious artifacts of the ancient world, the power of the piece is not diminished because it's no longer seen exactly the way it was by its creator. Perhaps someday another artist will pick up this piece and add another layer of markings, another chapter to the story of this standing stone. And perhaps after many, many somedays, a scholar will study it layer by layer, trying to determine what it was we meant to say. I hope so. I left a door open for them.

The Verge by Donna Kallner
In the world of my childhood, the beginning of a new year came not in January but in June, with my birthday and haying. At the summer solstice I stood on the verge of a new age, each year hoping for adventures of epic proportion. I can understand why the ancients might mark the passage of time with monuments like standing stones. But for me, new beginnings are still marked by the scent of cut grass, and the heat of the sun's rays until I step out of the open and into the cool shelter of the woods. It only takes a few steps to move from one place to the next, and anything is possible at the verge.

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