Intuition

...more of my summer mulling! This time some thoughts on intuition.
 Intuition is a tool that you must learn to use.Skills and logic will get you a long way but without intuition you have to keep going the long way 'round. It is not a muddly form of guesswork but a sophisticated tool which must be learnt like any other.
  We have no word for the next phase of intuition use, I have learned to use it by trust.I have also learnt that the logical mind will keep trying to interrupt with suggestions and logical possibilities which usually end badly. It is well meaning but out of its' depth.Using intuition is like swimming rather than running.

(the image above is taken of a moss filled book,part of 'Lachrimae rerum' (found here) )

Perfection

  Over the summer I have been mulling over some of the less obvious aspects of what I see during surgery. In conversation with a few people, artists and surgeons, the ideas of perfection and beauty have come up.
  It is interesting to note what it is that people value in their work but something not so straight forward has become apparent to me. What is technically perfect can be boring to the mind. A work can be imperfect, technically, but still harmonious. Perfection can be very bland whereas glitches and quirks are much more interesting as they suggest possibility. Perfection closes the road to other thought.
  I am currently working on a piece for this project which encompasses my responses as a textile artist to the world of surgery .The image above is of a fortune teller made in fine silk.As I made it I strove to make it as perfect as possible because the material demanded it. The areas that required perfection were in the folds and creases but not always the obvious ones. The final piece needed me to partially destroy all of the work for it to be right

and so in its' imperfection it became the thing of beauty that I needed it to be.