Before I Met You

I was talking to a friend last night at my favorite local bar. She just returned from a trip to Berlin, during which she wiped away the cobwebs from a recent breakup.


Before her trip, we had joked about the embroideries I should make. I was on deadline to deliver work, and needed to make some post-its quickly. She came up with the idea of a black square, and the concept of emptiness. I'm not sure who came up with the text, but I think it was a collaborative effort.


She told me that while on her trip, she kept imagining the embroidery, and couldn't wait to give it to someone, her future love. I went home last night after our conversation and embroidered my version of what I think she was imagining. 


"Life before I met you" (was a black hole).

Waiting for us

"A great love is waiting for us."

I spent most of Thanksgiving weekend working on this piece. The fabric is a lace handkerchief, a gift from my friend, Lynn, an artist who makes paper pulp sculptures, and ink drawings. 

I plan to stretch this fabric onto a backing, or possibly attach it to something stiffer to help shape it. 

Maybe there is something to the irregularity, though?

You wanted, I wanted

You wanted to reserve space inside my body. 

I wanted to crawl into a warm space I thought existed in you,

and later found empty.

So I have dismantled the past

to make my future free from you.

How do you end a relationship with someone that is personal and unsatisfying, and also involves a business collaboration? How do you walk away when there are so many threads strung in between you? 

It's time to yank at the threads, which have loosened over time, so that I am not longer tethered.

I am no longer tethered.