Wednesday, August 23, 2006

Day of the Dead


In honor of my one-woman show at the Crawfordsville District Public Library, I've started this blog as another way for people who see the show to offer their responses.
I've been a quilter since the mid-1970s. While I started out making traditional quilts, seeing the work of Judy Chicago (The Dinner Party) and Nancy Crow inspired me to make art quilts. Embroidery often finds its way into my work as well and I always hand quilt. Machine quilting doesn't satisfy me and besides, I enjoy the meditative nature of hand sewing.

This is one of the quilts in the show called "The Day of the Dead." I've always been fascinated with the imagery surrounding this holiday. Making death less frightening is always a good idea, I believe. Surrounding sadness with food and flowers and putting skeletons in everyday clothes doing normal activities is one of the cleverest ideas ever.