Introducing A Woven Life
What do you do for life?
I recently visited a delightful sculpture garden and gallery in Minneapolis. I have seen it many times from the highway driving from Minneapolis to my home in St Paul. The intriguing and hilarious, or (depending on your perspective) questionable name - House of Balls - has sparked my curiosity for years. Once inside, my inner child delighted in the android sculptures made with found objects and scraps, somehow expressing more emotion than I often see from fellow passengers on the bus.
Photo: Surprised humanoid sculpture by Allen Christian made with found metal objects.
Photographer: Ariane Laxo
The artist and creator of these emotive creatures, Allen Christian, found me in my state of wonder and after a greeting, he asked:
“What do you do for life?”
Woah.
My mind raced to embellish the question. What do you do for life? What gives you life? When your energy is depleted, what fills you back up? What feeds you—always? Reader, if you have a deeper, more profound way to get at the heart of a stranger’s soul, please share. The gauntlet has been thrown by a sculptor in Minneapolis.
What do I do for life? I weave. I mean this literally as a tapestry weaver and figuratively in every sense of the word. I make things with what I have available to me or what I am offered: the recycled fabrics that become a part of my textiles or art yarn; the miscarriages and infertility that taught me how to feel my grief, help me accept the moments I am given, see the doors that opened when another closed, and mindfully shape a life that I truly love; the emotional journeys I curated for attendees in my years volunteering with TEDxMinneapolis, using interactive experiences, music, and short, silly or evocative videos to serve as palate cleansers between talks.
In the decade I spent as an interior designer, I crafted physical spaces—offices, concert halls, libraries, spaces for learning—by weaving materials, furniture, walls, and doors into a cohesive whole that shapes the experiences of people who spend time there. I work now in sustainable architecture, pulling together technical and natural solutions with colleagues, collaborators, and clients to weave a better world—the one where we get it right.
Photo: Capital One Hall in Tysons, Virginia. Designed by the author and colleagues at HGA Architects & Engineers.
Photographer: Alan Karchmer
I am a collector of ideas, genre, and creative outputs. I am moved by visual art, installation art, music, photography, theater, film, books—the list goes on and on—I cannot go a day or even a few hours without ingesting art in some form. Myself, I am an artistic dabbler. Beyond textiles, I sing, finger paint with acrylics, play with watercolor, write non-fiction, poetry, and prose. Every medium becomes a form of weaving, where materials, fragments, and ideas can be woven together in novel, dark, silly, lovely ways to create stories, inspire wonder, and spin entire worlds. This is what I do for life. What about you?
A Woven Life is an idea garden, a tapestry of musings, explorations, and insights. I’ll show you what I’m weaving and invite you to do the same!
Photo: Selfie of the author at Waimea Canyon in Kauai’i, Hawai’i in 2022
Photographer: Ariane Laxo
Ariane Laxo (ah-ree-ON’ / LOX’-o) is an artist, writer, and designer who lives in St Paul, Minnesota with her husband Ben and many pets. Three of the four bedrooms in their home are used for making art.
Gauntlet thrown, indeed! What do I do for life?
I write, I hike, I run. I bike, I ski, I paddle, I swim. I adventure. I drive to beautiful places and sleep under the stars. I bury my face in my dogs’ fur. I hug and cuddle and kiss. I read and write and talk about things that are hard. I hold close the friends who really get me. I love and laugh and listen to music. I sit in the sun. I stay under the covers. I eat lots of plants that taste good. I surround myself with books I don’t have time to read. I daydream about Alaska, and when I will go back.
Thank you, Ariane, for sharing this beautiful reflection!