The Story of Moon Rain
private collection
The name Moon Rain came while watching a shower of meteorites fall over a full moon one summer night in the Gatineau Hills over 30 years ago, at the very beginning of my weaving time. It inspired the rya tapestry, The Night The Moon Rained.
Located outside the quiet picturesque village of Poltimore in Val des Monts, surrounded by the geologically old rolling Gatineau Hills in the Outaouais region of Quebec, Moon Rain is a centre for tapestry weaving and teaching, and a place for creative retreat and renewal. In 1999 Moon Rain was incorporated as a nonprofit organization dedicated to integrating creativity and harmony in the community through the creation, exhibition and teaching of tapestry arts.
During an exhibition of my tapestries at Museo Ixchel, the Museum of Textiles in Guatemala City, I learned of a Mayan legend that links weaving to the moon and the stars. Ixchel is the Mayan goddess of weaving, fertility and lunar cycles. “Moon” refers to the calendar, to the planting and harvesting of crops, and to weaving time. “Rain” refers to threads of inspiration and sacred knowledge that are woven into cloth to become the universal text of textiles. In Mayan culture the task of the weaver is a sacred one and weaving is older than recorded time.
I am grateful for the profound pleasure of weaving beautifully dyed yarns into tapestries over many, many moons, and for the enormous privilege of living with the beauty of nature.