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About Applegater. (Jacksonville, OR) 2008-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 1, 2013)
2 Winter 2013 Applegater The making of my moth doll by RACHeL myReN It was in mid December on a dull gray day when the question came to me, “What do I really want?” This idea of what I wanted was new territory for me. What stirred in me was that I wanted to make a doll! So , I s e t a s i d e m y irrational fears and garnered up the courage to just start this doll having no idea what was to come of it. I started with the head. Once it was stuffed, I needle-sculpted the facial features. I then held this little muslin doll head in the palm of my hand. In that very sweet moment, “she” told me she “wanted to be a moth!” I thought to myself, “a moth… really? What kind of moth? And, why a moth?” Clearly, this doll knew what she needed to become and I had been chosen to create her. It felt like such an honor! I realized my role in this project was to listen and to trust. In a vague way this felt exciting to me in the dull of winter. For months she sat on my worktable in varying stages of development and frequently my sewing clients would ask, “What is she going to look like when she is done?” I had no idea! It was as if she was unfolding in my hands, little by little as I worked on her. I had lots of resistance when it came to making the wings. This, I knew, was an inner personal resistance. These wings represented a profoundly transformed state. Something was also going on inside myself. I, too, was being transformed by this process. Insects have an exoskeleton made of chitin so I represented these tiny scales on the limbs with the appliqued dull lace over the sheen of the iridescent silk dupioni fabric. Her forearms have skin showing Docile moth provides photo ops by LINDA KAppeN The second largest and one of the most recognizable insect orders in the world is Lepidoptera, which includes butterflies and moths. Moths make up the largest number in this order. There are 150,000 to 250,000 species of moths with more still to be described by scientists. The United States Pacific Green Sphinx Moth found at Applegate School. has around 11,000 Photo: Linda Kappen. moth species, and in southwestern Oregon moths were observed under porch lights at alone there are 1,000 known species. The Pacific Green Sphinx Moth the school. There are many similar habitats (Proserpinus lucidus, formerly known as in our area and it is worth a search on your Arctonotus lucidus) is of the Sphingidae porch to see the heart-shaped designs, family that includes a majority of the bright olive-green color with rosy-pink and moth species. Its range is in the Pacific light-brown lined markings. This moth with its docile nature will Northwest. This moth is on the wing very early in let you photograph and observe it for a the season from mid January to April. In long period of time. Observing moths can southwestern Oregon the habitats for this be fun with their diversity of shapes, sizes, species are oak woodlands or chaparral and colors, and fascinating patterns. More information about moths can mixed grasslands. In the caterpillar stage, food plants are be found at the PNW Moths website evening primrose (Oenothera dentata var. (pnwmoths.biol.wwu.edu) and Butterflies campestris) and clarkias. Some sources say and Moths of North America website this moth does not feed as an adult; others (butterfliesandmoths.org). Linda Kappen say it feeds on flower nectar. humbugkapps@hotmail.com At night you may see males of this species attracted to light. This beautiful Ed. Note: Linda Kappen earned a naturalist Pacific Green Sphinx Moth (see photo) was certification from Siskiyou Field Institute found at Applegate School one evening (SFI) and has hosted a two-day butterfly/ during February 2010. Last winter several moth course there. emerge completely transformed with wings. Moths also seek out the light, which is what this doll is all about! One day, about five months into her making, it came to me that her name was to be Harken, which in Old English means to actively listen. As it turns out, Harken is a woman who is in the process of morphing into a moth. She is aware of something changing within her. She can sense the emerging wings, the antennae and even the thorax, but she is not able to see any of these changes because they are happening behind and above her. From the front, Harken is dull in color, much like a moth’s body, but from the back there are bright colors emerging on her wings. Harken’s transformation took seamstress Harken’s upward expression is Rachel Myren around 200 hours to complete. listening attentively to gain an understanding of what she is to through the lace indicating that she is still do with these emerging, brightly colored changing. Moths also often have dull- “gifts,” her newly changing life form. To finish, I gave her a single teardrop colored, furry bodies. I “just happened” to find the perfectly colored taupe fur for her on her necklace, which represents the thighs, bottom and back on either side of bitter-sweetness of sloughing off the old her newly emerging wings. Her “petticoat” and the taking on of the new. Change is is made of white fluffy feathers, which rarely easy. Doll-making can be a powerful and implies lightness and coming flight. For her hair I found the perfect combination personally transformative journey. The fact of taupe and teal twisted together, which I is that the doll is me. Like a moth that fashioned into pigtails of youthful-looking is so often not noticed, my life has been looped braids. Somehow they reflect the largely consumed by invisible work that newness of her emerging condition. Due is noticed only when it is not yet done. to the imbalance created by the heavy Harken represents the transformation I glass beading on the backs of her wings, am experiencing at what I call my mid- I had to add three fishing weights inside life upheaval. I’m glad that I accepted the her bottom. A little grounding is not a inner challenge to listen and create Harken for she seemed to know what she needed bad idea! The question that most often came to become. Now, after nine months, Harken up was, “Why a moth and not a beautiful butterfly?” My answer was that moths is finally complete. She continues her are comparatively unnoticed. We marvel harkening—gently reminding me to sit over butterflies and their graceful beauty. still, quiet my thoughts, actively listen and Moths are not thought of as beautiful, to trust in this sometimes daunting inner but they are if you really look closely. process of mid-life upheaval. Rachel Myren Both moths and butterflies go through a 541-846-0431 significant metamorphosis entering into love2dance062@gmail.com a still, chrysalis-like state, alone, to later Diana Coogle joins the Applegater Board of Directors Diana Coogle, long-time Applegate denizen and writer, has joined the Applegater Board of Directors. Jumping in with both feet, she also wrote a story for this issue about some talented local artisans. After growing up in Georgia and studying at Cambridge University as a Marshall Scholar, Diana moved to an Applegate mountainside where she lived without electricity, closer to neighbors in nature than to human neighbors, teaching part-time at Rogue Community College (RCC) and writing commentaries for Jefferson Public Radio (JPR), happily half a hermit, for more than 35 years. In 2006 she began a weekly commute to Eugene to pursue a PhD in English and to teach at the University of Oregon. During graduate-school years she acquired a wonderful granddaughter and a new house (on her same land) designed by her son, where she now lives, still happily, with common electrical conveniences. After graduating in 2012, she is home full-time, continuing teaching at RCC and writing. Diana has published three books of selected JPR commentaries: Fire The Applegater board is that much stronger with the addition of Diana Coogle. from the Dragon’s Tongue (an Oregon Book Award finalist), Living with All My Senses: 25 Years of Life on the Mountain, and An Explosion of Stars. In addition, with Janeen Sathre, she has published Favorite Hikes of the Applegate: A Trail Guide with Stories and Histories. Besides her many years as an Applegater, Diana brings to the Applegater board her past experience on other boards along with journalism and writing expertise.
