This is a photo of a photo taken in May 1985.
In the early 1980's, Justine Merritt envisioned a huge ribbon of peace that would remind world leaders of the horrors of nuclear war. As the 40th anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima approached, a call was put out for people to respond to the question, "What I cannot bear to think of as lost in a nuclear war". Folks were invited to create 36"x18" fabric panels, complete with ties to connect one panel to the next. On the day of the anniversary 20,000 panels were tied together. It was 18 miles long and wrapped around the Pentagon and into Washington DC. Dubbed The Ribbon International, it later became a United Nations non Governmental Organization. You can read more about it on Wikipedia here.
Our minister at the time invited us to sew panels and we sent a parcel full of beautiful handwork on behalf of our church. At the time, Batman and I had only two of our four children. I was a young mom and thought long and hard about what I would miss most. I kept coming back to Mother Nature and all the beauty she creates in the world, and the reliable circle of the seasons and the growth cycles that she supports. I ended up embroidering a panel that followed a seed from planting to decay, under the rays of the sun (shown above).
Since then, I've stitched all sorts of pieces for a cause. I sewed a panel for the NAMES project when I was in the thick of volunteering with PWA's (People with AIDS). I volunteered to be a docent when the quilt came to Navy Pier in Chicago, a day I will never forget.
Lately, with the current administration in the White House, I have been following several brave stitchers with great admiration.
Do you know about the Tiny Pricks Project? "The material record of Trump's presidency" is created and curated by Diana Weymar. Tweets taken directly from Trump's Twitter account are embroidered onto vintage hankies and other textiles. From the Tiny Pricks website, "desperate times, creative measures. Like so many others, I am trying to process this presidency in a way that doesn’t involve withdrawing from following politics. This project is about witnessing, recording, taking notes in thread, and paying attention. Paying attention to his words." To see more, check out the Instagram account here.
Willemien de Villers lives in Cape Town and creates simply amazing embroidered work with old textiles. Here is a fascinating article about the artist and her work. Her stitching is provocative and beautiful at the same time.
Chawne Kimber, of "completely cauchy" is another woman whose stitches inspire me.
Here's a brief artist statement from her website:
"Through the cultivation of cotton in rural Alabama, some of my ancestors (unwillingly) participated in the building of the United States. Cotton has been central in the lives of the women of my family–from picking to ginning to sewing, with quilting emerging as the main mode of self-expression available. Patchwork was sewn from worn denim and calico clothing and layered with the discarded cottonseed and fluff from the gin houses for insulation to make quilts.
Inspired by these quilts made by these ancestors in the late 1800s, I interpret traditional forms in an improvisational style using vibrant modern colors of commercially available American-farmed, processed and woven cotton. Some of the designs are geometric romps that emphasize the complex forms of negative space that naturally arise, while others utilize unusually small scaling to exaggerate shapes and tonal sequences. Using the quilt medium to respond to current race-related social justice issues, I also make minimal two-tone appliquéd self-portraits in a street art style."
I hope you will find some solace or inspiration or maybe even some provocation while visiting these links. Do you follow any activist stitchers, friends? Please do share here, in the comments below! Thanks!
Our minister at the time invited us to sew panels and we sent a parcel full of beautiful handwork on behalf of our church. At the time, Batman and I had only two of our four children. I was a young mom and thought long and hard about what I would miss most. I kept coming back to Mother Nature and all the beauty she creates in the world, and the reliable circle of the seasons and the growth cycles that she supports. I ended up embroidering a panel that followed a seed from planting to decay, under the rays of the sun (shown above).
Since then, I've stitched all sorts of pieces for a cause. I sewed a panel for the NAMES project when I was in the thick of volunteering with PWA's (People with AIDS). I volunteered to be a docent when the quilt came to Navy Pier in Chicago, a day I will never forget.
Lately, with the current administration in the White House, I have been following several brave stitchers with great admiration.
Do you know about the Tiny Pricks Project? "The material record of Trump's presidency" is created and curated by Diana Weymar. Tweets taken directly from Trump's Twitter account are embroidered onto vintage hankies and other textiles. From the Tiny Pricks website, "desperate times, creative measures. Like so many others, I am trying to process this presidency in a way that doesn’t involve withdrawing from following politics. This project is about witnessing, recording, taking notes in thread, and paying attention. Paying attention to his words." To see more, check out the Instagram account here.
Willemien de Villers lives in Cape Town and creates simply amazing embroidered work with old textiles. Here is a fascinating article about the artist and her work. Her stitching is provocative and beautiful at the same time.
Chawne Kimber, of "completely cauchy" is another woman whose stitches inspire me.
Here's a brief artist statement from her website:
"Through the cultivation of cotton in rural Alabama, some of my ancestors (unwillingly) participated in the building of the United States. Cotton has been central in the lives of the women of my family–from picking to ginning to sewing, with quilting emerging as the main mode of self-expression available. Patchwork was sewn from worn denim and calico clothing and layered with the discarded cottonseed and fluff from the gin houses for insulation to make quilts.
Inspired by these quilts made by these ancestors in the late 1800s, I interpret traditional forms in an improvisational style using vibrant modern colors of commercially available American-farmed, processed and woven cotton. Some of the designs are geometric romps that emphasize the complex forms of negative space that naturally arise, while others utilize unusually small scaling to exaggerate shapes and tonal sequences. Using the quilt medium to respond to current race-related social justice issues, I also make minimal two-tone appliquéd self-portraits in a street art style."
I hope you will find some solace or inspiration or maybe even some provocation while visiting these links. Do you follow any activist stitchers, friends? Please do share here, in the comments below! Thanks!
I'm so appreciative of this posting, Karen. I was unaware of these projects and so impressed with the creativity of these ladies. There are positive stories out there and so exciting to read them. We are living in challenging times and this is a productive way to release some of that frustration that builds following the madness in Washington. Thank you for sharing.
ReplyDeleteThanks. I'm enjoying those tiny pricks posts. Here's some crochet work that honors the beauty of coral reefs. https://crochetcoralreef.org/about/index.php
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