“Creativity lies in paradox: serious art is born from serious play.” Julia Cameron

Installation of my reuse, recycle, renew project. 

While I was in church the priest was talking about his busy weekend that included hearing the first confessions of the second grade class. 

 " You are only as sick as our secrets." unknown author.

I started thinking about how healing it is to be able to share a secret burden in private that is too embarrassing to tell your friends or family. 

 Then this vision came, what if I worked with used coffee filter tossed out as trash because they are stained.  I began seeing the used coffee filters, stained from use, as a metaphor for people who are cast off after they served a purpose. 

How often do people get thrown out with the trash when we no longer need their services?

 Do we throw out people when we clear the tables of our life???

The process of being involved in the making is important to me. I began collecting used coffee filters, emptying the grinds, rising the filters, taking the grinds and water to my compost heap, then hanging each filter up to dry.  The projects grew so large that I needed more used coffee filters than I produced in my life. I put a call for help over facebook for people to save their trash for my art projects. Used coffee filters began pouring into my life.  For caring and sharing of their time and energy much appreciation goes out to;
 Kara, Jomarie, Tim and Jake.

After the filters were dry I impregnated them with bees wax.

Impregnating the paper coffee filters with bees wax does it few things.  First, it makes the paper more translucent like skin. Bees wax is used as a balm for healing skin. The wax gives strength to the paper filter as well as making it more mailable for three dimensional work.

Wishing to work with secrets that are a burden for anonymous females I trolled the list on http://www.postsecret.com/ 

After writing the secret on the paper filter I stitch the words in a quiet, neutral shade of embroidery floss as I prayed for healing to come into this persons life.

See my blog   http://cariceraff.blogspot.com/2010_01_01_archive.html

As the Healing Garden keeps growing I am playing with an installation that shows my prayers for healing rising like incense. The garden has room to grow as more elements are added in the future.

The sticks are recycled from an old bamboo shade that was falling apart.  They are held into place in discarded candle holder filled with solid wax.  The secrets representing the women are suspended from the wall by bamboo skewers.  Small mirrors are positioned behind the secrets to show there is writing while not making the writing visible.  

It is my prayer that healing may enter the hearts of all the women represented in my growing installation...