The Star (Light my way)

“The Star (Light my way)”

(paper stars, paper weavings, glue, yarn, fabric, canvas, metal O ring, Tulip Poplar tree branches)
29.5 x 21 x 21″ mobile with stars on the floor

The making

When I decided to make a mobile for this open call I didn’t know what I was getting myself into. Remembering the mobile that my children had hanging over their cribs made me think this would be…not a big deal to pull off.

Turns out balance is a whole thing.

I struggled with getting my sticks balanced and how to attach them to each other. Once I had them glued together and had the canvas ties on there, I decided to tea dye the canvas without untying it from the sticks. The tea made the glue release so I had to reglue them. Ugggggh.

Once I had all of those problems resolved I was on to business of attaching all the bits.

Making the bits to go on this was definitely the most fun part of this project. I got to make all kinds of stars and all kinds of other little artifacts. I crocheted about 20 stars of various kinds and sizes (I didn’t end up using them all but I didn’t know what sizes or colors I’d need so I just kept making them). There’s two little fabric bags of stars: one closed up for later and one open and pouring stars out onto the ground. I wrote myself a little note to have in the project basket which I ended up hanging from the mobile. One side says: What would it look like to believe again? and the other side says: Tap into our inner wisdom and follow our path.

I enlisted family members to help me make the paper stars which will litter the ground under the mobile so shout out to Oz, Stephen, Sylvia, and Ray for making hundreds of TINY paper stars.

The playlist

At the beginning of making this piece I made myself a Spotify playlist because I kept singing the Coldplay song “A sky full of stars” to myself while I was working. I’ve been listening to it kinda a lot while I’m working and my only complaint is that it’s not enough songs. It’s kinda witchy, I guess? I dunno. It’s just this current work’s soundtrack.

Here’s a screenshot just in case the Spotify link tanks:

Naming the piece

The naming convention for this series is “Name of Tarot Card that is the focus of the piece (Something personal to me)” Since my In search of alchemy series is about my exploration of the themes in Tarot and how they intersect my life, this naming convention seemed appropriate and has gotten more interesting as I’ve added pieces. For The Star I didn’t quite know what I wanted the personal parenthesis to be so I went to the lyrics for “A sky full of stars” but nothing there was quite right. Then this morning, I had U2’s “Ultraviolet” playing in my head so I pulled up the song lyrics for that. “Light my way” is a lyric from that and speaks to the star as well as the prompt for the piece:

“Borderless” is an exhibition showcasing artworks that reflect moments of questioning, resistance, and transcendence through embodying when societal or internalized boundaries are confronted, reshaped, or dismantled.

In a world structured by inherited systems that draw arbitrary lines, ones that define identity, value, and belonging, this exhibition invites artists to explore the borders they’ve encountered: those imposed by culture, politics, gender, geography, or the psyche. These boundaries may be physical, emotional, or psychological, and some may feel beneficial or supportive while others often serve to confine, control, or diminish.

Through personal narrative and collective memory, artists are called to create and submit works that examine, challenge, and reimagine the borders that shape our lived experiences. What happens when we step beyond what is assigned or expected? How do we embody and express freedom, transformation, and agency within or beyond constraint?
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You are invited to reflect on the boundaries that have shaped your identity or those of your communities – and to imagine what it might mean to live in a world without them. Artists are encouraged to push their boundaries while exploring the theme to your fullest interpretation and creation.

–ALWCA Borderless Art Call

This is the text I submitted with the piece:

In my current body of work, I am exploring the tarot and how the cards’ themes intersect with my life and creativity. The Star tarot card is about inspiration and guidance. In culture and myths stars are symbols of wishes and hope. Stars exist outside of borders but are available to all of us. They guide and enchant us. In this piece, I invite the viewer to think about what path they are on and what they need for the journey. The viewer is invited to take a star from the floor as a reminder that they can access the power of the stars at any time.

The zine

One of the ways I’m documenting what I make this year is to create a quick zine about the process. I don’t want this step to get bogged down so this is the quickest and the dirtiest. Just a sheet of drawing paper turned into a one page zine where I record things that were meaningful to me during the making process. It’s a way to stop and savor what I’ve done. Plus record it like social media doesn’t exist because well, it mostly doesn’t for me anymore. Flip through the pages below!