Studio table: network progress

I have been a crocheter since I was 12 years old, I believe. I had spent a month in Honduras with one of my aunts and she taught me how to crochet as well as how to cross-stitch. I’ve carried the love for both of those crafts all these years, but at a certain point I was dissatisfied with following patterns and pretty much stopped. I picked up knitting during my college years somehow. I say somehow because I really couldn’t afford yarn, but I must have figured out a way! I have always found the action of knitting and crocheting as a self-soothing act. When I have felt anxious or worried or even angry, I just pull out my needles and get to it.

I also can’t help but think of Madame Defarge knitting her revenge in Tale of Two Cities….

Anyway, I have been working on this installation piece and getting ready for the installation in about a week. Since the election I have found myself with my needles and/or hook along with twine and jute, making these series of knots, finding calm in the busy-ness of my hands.

The top of the piece is woven and from it, will hang a crocheted web of sorts. Here are some work in progress glimpses.

I wanted the crocheted web to be delicate and beautiful, to catch the eye of the person walking by on the trail. To beckon them to approach and take a closer look and read the sign. So that they can learn what I want to share with them.

This week I started to piece it all together with more knots and the addition of wire. It is gratifying to see what I envisioned in my head finally taking physical form. But it won’t be done until it is installed between the two trees I selected at Lake Roland. That will happen next week sometime. Wish me luck! I hate ladders…

I am very passionate about my politics- and the things that matter to me, the ideals and promises that this country stands for are seemingly endangered. As I crocheted, I thought about how even more important it is now to stand by my principles and beliefs. I can do this through my community work, through what I teach my children and through my art. Both of my installation pieces for the upcoming exhibit speak to my love and passion for nature, for the protection of the environment, and the sustainability of the earth. I hope that the people who pass this piece will learn something new and be inspired to learn more and feel that this land we’re on is something amazing to behold and something we need to protect.

I have also been in doing some very raw emotional art journaling since the elecetion that I’ve been calling my angry art. It’s over on my Instagram if you would like to see it. I heard Squeak Carnwath speak at MICA recently and she talked about embracing her anger, and how especially important that is for visual artists to do so during this political climate. I felt very inspired by what she said, and I have been doing that. It is helping me.

And I urge us all to get active. Call your legislators, find the people in your community that are Doing, that make our communities a place where we can All grow in and live in a healthy and safe way. Here is an article written by a college friend of mine, that I find inspiring: One Tiny Act of Resistance.

“In the end we will conserve only what we love; we will love only what we understand and we will understand only what we are taught.” – Baba Dioum