If you are a gardener you will know what I am talking about. It’s that moment when the efforts of your labor and your vision show real evidence. Those tiny leaves that seem so tender and fragile push up through the damp spring earth, beginning the way for a cornucopia of vegetables, flowers and dye plants.
Today feels like that kind of day for me – when the fruits of many months of labor are evident. Today I take months of art work to the photographer to be documented. And this week I announce my new community art project.
After months of contemplation I am ready to launch my fifth community art initiative - WHITE FLAG - motivated to by a desire to foster openness and transformation through conversation, creativity and reflection. As with all my previous community art projects, WHITE FLAG uses a textile as a vehicle for healthy communication and creativity to encourage understanding between individuals and communities.
The centerpiece for this project, a WHITE FLAG, has been recognized for centuries as a symbol not only for surrender or truce, but a willingness to have a dialogue and negotiate. If we are going to survive as a species, as a planet - we need to find ways to come together peacefully, to listen and to be vulnerable. This community art project builds on that concept – asking participants to sit at a table, talk, listen and use embroidery threads, sewing trims, buttons and writing/drawing tools to embellish the WHITE FLAG with words, images and patterns reflecting their dialogue. This project will have 10 handwoven linen WHITE FLAGS and 10 – 20 hosts (an individual, family, school, household, institution, restaurant/café or collective) who will support the project at each site, using prompts and guidelines.
Parallel to the creative embellishment of the handwoven flags, I will ask people to write about “making peace” on kozo paper. I will spin this paper will be spun into thread and later weave it into one large WHITE FLAG.
WHITE FLAG is centered on encouraging conversations for understanding and connection through interactive and engaging activities, appropriate for all ages and abilities. Throughout the project, the hosts and participants will witness how the WHITE FLAG changes with each get-together, becoming more and more layered with threads, stories, ribbons, images and text. The project will culminate with a public exhibition of the 10 embellished WHITE FLAGS, the large WHITE FLAG woven with “making peace” paper threads, along with photographs and videos of the white cloth community events. Through curiosity, action, listening, observation, responding and reflection this project aspires to transcend conflict and transform communities.
Keep your eyes open for WHITE FLAG events near you! I will be soliciting folks to be event hosts and participants later this summer. Please contact me if you are curious to know more and/or want to participate.
SOON in my gallery I will have several new pieces - so excited that I finally got the last several months of art work photographed!! Stay tuned to my gallery for seven new pieces!
OTHER NEWS ~
LightsOut Gallery featured a short YouTube video interview of me. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aOWameeGv-I&t=7s
“Well Used, Well Loved” is on exhibit in “the PERFECT AGE: reflections on the passage of time” HERA Gallery Wakefield RI. May 14 – June 18. There will be an artist Zoom talk on May 26th at 7 PM Zoom link on the gallery website.
“Hold Me Like A Mother” has been accepted to “Yarn Rope String” FiberArtNow Juried on line exhibition. July 2022
“Live Your Truth” and “Indigo Nights” have both been accepted to the Handweavers Guild of America’s Convergence Symphony of the Mountains exhibit in Knoxville TN. July 2022
My piece titled “Sinking House #1” is included in “Unraveling Women’s Art” by P.L. Henderson SuperNova Books, England, 2021