In and out of weeks and through a year....

 Any of you who are familiar with Where the Wild Things Are will be familiar with the phrase In and out of weeks and through a year,that described Max's adventure in the land of the wild things. Nini sent me the key photos from her last summer's trip to Nova Scotia just about a year ago.

I began by looking and looking at these photos and trying to figure out how to render

this particular landscape in fabric.

 

While sometimes Nova Scotia has bright sunny skies.  So often, it is the fog that defines the place. I remembered walking with my Halifax born friend Shawna on a misty day towards the Hudson River.  It was a misty cool day. We were essentially walking through the fog. Shawna sighed and said, "Ahh, it's Halifax weather!". 

 The fabric for the main body of the tallit was chosen because it evokes the fog.

I added more fog with oil paint sticks and with hand embroidery.

This photo inspired the stripe of pines above the fog.

Nini wanted to be sure that Nova Scotia tartan was included in the tallit. Just as Mrs. Douglas Murray, the inventor of the tartan, used the colors of the Nova Scotia landscape in her plaid, I used the same colors in the tallit. 

The tallit is using Jewish language to recreate that same landscape--Mrs. Murray is using the language of tartan.

Yes, the dark blue stripe was inspired by the water as seen from the kayak.

The beach roses and the wild blueberries come from other's of Nini's photos.

I am so grateful that Nini was willing to give me as long a time as it took to get this tallit completed. I have loved the many conversations that nini and I have had to refine all of the ideas in this tallit.

I have also loved being able to explore my own visits to Halifax as  a child and to incorporate some of those visual memories into this tallit.

Working on this tallit has also became a long conversation with my dear friend Shawna who so sadly is no longer alive to make sure that I was really getting all of the elements right in this tallit.

In a few weeks Nini will stop by on her return from this summer's visit to Nova S. I look forward to tying the tzitzit with her.