Open Heart
Unique Artist’s Book
© Cherry Jeffs 2024
Inspiration for the book’s structure
Open Heart is one-of-a kind artist’s book in the form of a heart-shaped box. The front covers have a raised design of overlapping butterfly wings. To open the book you slide off the covers in a movement resembling wings opening. The form of the box was inspired by Sacred Heart Ex Votos - devotional objects used to give thanks for granted prayers. I adapted the opening mechanism from the Double Opening Heart Box design by Nilmara Quíntela.
A curved stem runs through the centre of the box, crowning the top in a canopy. This stem divides the base of the box into two chambers. Here you confront the metamorphic experience which created the butterfly. A female form, in foetal position, nestles in an organza and lace cocoon in each side. One cocoon is dark, the other light. These colours represent contrasting states of the heart and the dark/light aspects of the divine feminine. They are also an acknowledgement that the creation of a butterfly is never a given. Some caterpillars die in stasis. Some transform into breathtaking aliveness.
(In Christian and Rabbinical thought, the left hemisphere is dark, female and unconscious. But, despite the inspiration I found in sacred imagery, I don’t intend any specific religious meaning. So I reversed the colours - placing the white chrysalis on the left.)
These chrysalises - unlike those of a caterpillar perfected over millennia - are improvised affairs. Hastily assembled to provide shelter at short notice.
Materials and motifs
When you turn over the book, cupped hands hold the heart shape contained. The finish of the box has the appearance of worn stone ore containing metal minerals. No matter how much difficulty we experience, our hearts can remain strong and full of potential.
An eye motif runs through the piece: Tiny eyes decorate the neck of the stem, one of the hands wears a ring of an eye design, and the pattern on the butterfly wings also incorporates blue eyes. These eyes reference the Hamsa - also known as the Hand of Fatima or the Hand/Eye of Miriam. The Hamsa is a stylised symbol of a hand, often containing an eye in the centre to offer protection from a curse or ‘evil eye’. It was one of the first ideas which sparked the Healing Hands series.
My time in stasis
Stasis
1. the state of equilibrium or inactivity caused by opposing equal forces.
2. Pathology. stagnation in the flow of any of the fluids of the body, as of the blood in an inflamed area or the intestinal contents proximal to an obstruction.
Open Heart proved to be a prophetic piece. I was diagnosed with life-threatening, Stage 4 ovarian cancer just after I started stitching the first chrysalis. The following seven months found me in the kind of stasis that the chrysalises represent, not knowing whether the outcome would be dark or light.
Yet through this difficult time, nurturing hands held me safe. My inimitable life partner, the incredible nursing staff, and my loyal friends opened their hearts to provide the loving support I needed to sustain me.
And the concept of the ex-Voto also proved apt. Writing a daily gratitude journal helped me begin each day with renewed hope and optimism.
Did the eyes on the heart box protect me from the worst workings of the evil eye? Will I get to spread my wings again or will my new life be as brief as a butterfly’s?
Hold the heart in your hands. Your care might keep it safe from the evil eye…