Spring still feels far away. A few blooms have poked up, but the days are cold and cloudy. I hope to be able to take some photos outside of recent work, just need the right conditions (bright but overcast, no wind, above fifty degrees). I am restless, between projects, looking for some kind of “transition” handwork to help me move to the next thing. I may just start stitching scraps together and see where it leads--or maybe continue my handkerchief stories.
Wisdom Cloak: The Grandmothers. 54 x 57”, wool, cotton, small objects.
Wisdom Cloak: The Grandmothers, was selected for the SAQA Global exhibit Color in Context: Red, juried by Judy Kirpich. The exhibit will premier at the International Quilt Festival in Houston this fall. I was inspired by some research I accidentally stumbled into about ancient, neolithic standing stones called menhirs or “grandmother stones” that are found still standing throughout Europe. Here is my artist statement:
The ancient ones, our grandmothers going far back in time, preserved a legacy of wisdom that lives on in women today. All of womankind is a sisterhood of time and place—our own stitches and threads connecting us to the past and into the future.
Reading List:
Long winter, lots of books…A World of Curiosities by Louise Penny; Now is Not the Time to Panic, by Kevin Wilson; A Dangerous Business, by Jane Smiley; The Book of Form and Emptiness, by Ruth Ozeki; and One for the Blackbird, One for the Crow, by Olivia Hawker.