Danny's Left Arm

This is the first art quilt that I made. It's called "Danny's Left Arm" and came about because of a terrible accident that befell Dan when he was in third grade. I was inspired by a quote from Judy Chicago:
“The spirit of art is always affirming, even when it deals with painful realities, for the act of making an image transforms that pain into something beautiful.”
I began making sketches for it while he was still in the hospital. It was my attempt to literally sew him back together. I traced around Anna's arm for the image and researched suture stitches and microscopic images of nerve cells to come up with the embroidery designs. The words are from the surgical report following Dan's second and successful surgery at the Hand Center in Indianapolis. Trying to make something beautiful out of something terrible.