My political quilt career started as I sat home alone watching the US bomb the Iraqis in the first Gulf War. The first quilt, Blood and Oil: the Peace Quilt, just poured out of me. This was the beginning of the challenges in making and displaying political quilts.
I put a ‘river’ in the center that represents a river of devastation.
Displaying this quilt at a local show was also a lesson in the display of political quilts. I saw the card with my story of the quilt on the quilt when I got there, but when I went back later, it was gone. No attribution and no story: no message got out to other quilt viewers. When I queried, they said that things like that happen and they would put up a new one. I never saw it.
Artist Warrior and Mother Warrior were made to express the difficulties of both ‘jobs’. I always had to fight for my child, for time to sew. It seemed like I was always fighting for something. I was a warrior and didn’t want to be one.
This quilt was followed by two quilts after 9/11, which were so hard to make, but also cathartic.
Fireball just expressed my horror of the devastation. I made it very quickly for the America from the Heart display at Houston in 2001, which was about a month and a half after the devastation of 9/11.
What Comes Next is a quilt that expressed my hope for the future after 9/11. The ‘river’ theme continues in this quilt, but this time is a river of tears. Of course, the future brought the second Iraqi war, the continuing war in Afghanistan, Syria, devastation, hatred, fear all over the Middle East.
Women’s Work is a comment on how women are still primarily responsible for housework, caregiving, cooking and childrearing. This is not to denigrate the strides in equality we have made.
The stress that was the genesis of this quilt started on my birthday, which was January 20 (2017), not just because it was inauguration day, but also because I was at an event where people were happy to see President Obama leave office. They didn’t like him because he was black. For them it was No-Bama Day. For me, even though I didn’t know it at the time, it was the beginning of a stressful, distressing time.
I walked around waiting for my ATM card not to work, to be made subhuman, like in the Handmaid’s Tale. I started really to fear that the better country we were making would be dismantled. You might think we don’t need the EPA or the ACA and that is your right. I do not want to create a Sh*tstorm and this is not a political blog. I feel we do need clean air and health care for everyone. My feelings coalesced when I saw Sarah Ann Smith’s quilt, Speak Up, Speak Out.
When I saw her quilt, I realized that another in my political art quilt series had been brewing in my head without me really knowing. I thought “this is the quilt I wanted to make.” I said so to Sarah and she said to make my version.
At the time, I posted a Spark about having a secret. It was purely coincidental with the project I was working on.
I needed to work on this project, but I did not want comments or to provoke the storm I know will come with this post. At the time, I wasn’t quite ready. I still am not ready. As long as I still have freedom of speech I will post this quilt. I knew about the Threads of Resistance project and I would love to be a part of that show.
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These quilts are difficult to make, difficult to display and difficult to look at. I have more in my future, I am sure.