The Best Laid Plans...

The beloved Scottish Poet Robbie Burns' 1786 poem, To A Mouse, was written as an apology after he tore through a mouse nest while ploughing.

But, Mousie, thou art no thy lane In proving foresight may be vain: The best laid schemes o' mice an' men Gang aft a-gley, An' lea'e us nought but grief an' pain, For promised joy. ...

Part of the third line, of course, was borrowed by John Steinbeck for his great novel about Things That Went Awry.

This piece in response to the challenge word Structures turned out to be more of an expression of my current state of mind than an arresting visual statement, so I'll post a few process pictures so that you can see what is behind the whole thing.

I began with some old blueprints

and waxed them-

then I crunched them up and applied ink-

and then ironed out the excess wax, fused them to some backing, and began stitching-

the final product mirrors some of the thoughts I've been cogitating over recently, the way the very foundations of our society seem to be crumbling- the blueprints are barely visible under the stitching and random cracks- they were there at one time, we thought they would be strong, but it seems that there are new forces every day to tear them down.