I have been busy beavering away at my newest bird in (what's apparently becoming) the woodpecker series; and have many times thought I should do a new blog showing my progress. For instance, (I'll check later); but I don't think I even showed you the final incarnation of the prior woodpecker.
What's been holding me up, is that I haven't found anything I wanted to talk about in particular. I know that in years past when I was blogging about my work, I usually talked about the process, what I was doing, how I was doing it, sometimes even what inspired me to do it; but with these pieces I'm just embroidering, and not even doing any fancy stitches - I remain fascinated by the "limits" of what straight stitch can do.
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Process aside (after all, what can be said about the length and breadth of a straight stitch); I had an experience that put my nose, ever so slightly, out of joint. Perhaps it's more out of joint than I expected as I feel the need to blog about it - but whatever the current angle of my septum, here's where it started.
About the same time I decided to start blogging again, I also decided to start posting on my Kit Lang Art Instagram. Whereupon I discovered that somehow, though it still exists - all of my posts are gone. I don't know if that's because it was fallow for so long, the god's at Meta decided to unexist it; or, if in a fit of pique or the depths of depression, I deleted it myself 5 or 6 years ago, the result is the same. All of my work posted since the inception of Instagram until 2018 is gone, as were all of my followers.
So, despite the fact that people seem to be leaving Meta owned socials in droves, I am in the somewhat unique position of beginning again over there, only because I don't know where to deposit the photo record of this incarnation of one aspect of myself.
Whoa. I'm really in the weeds over here, aren't I? lol
So anyway, doing that has meant that I have to trawl the interwebs looking for pictures of my work. My early work in quilts and art,
should be on this very blog, but two things have conspired against me. One, that I kept hopping from blog to blog (anyone remember the now defunct "Diva Quilts"? I even had it as a website at one point.) There was also "Cornflowers in Leslieville", and two or three more. I don't know what I was on about, but as I deleted those blogs and sites before finally settling here; I also deleted all of that work.
I didn't worry about it because I had all of it on "sticks"; but then, around 2013 or so, there was a flood in my studio, and the sticks, along with a lot of other stuff; was gone.
So here I am, trying to find pictures of my own work.
ANYWAY. (My lordt, I do blather.)
Some of the work has been sold, including "Beautiful Monster" above, but its owner lives here in Toronto, so I asked her if I could borrow it to take some pictures of it. She consented, so here is an unedited photo of it. (We're getting closer to the point of this post now!)
Although I haven't reached 2013 yet on my insta (where I'm still on 2008 or so, I think); I am in an embroidery group on FB, where I've lurked but have posted very little. When I edited the photos of "Beautiful Monster", I thought, hey, now I have something to post in the group!
So I posted it, and to date, it has gotten 48 likes and 2 comments. I didn't really think anything of those stats, until, that is, l noticed today that someone else's post has 2.7K likes.
I don't know why the number of likes stood out to me, but I scrolled back to have a closer look at the artist's post. It was a really cute piece, but it was mostly a well-done painted background, with (I swear) almost no stitching,
And it reminded me of back when I was making political textile art, and people tried to shame me out of making such work out of fabric; as if fabric itself is somehow sancrosanct, and ought not to be sullied with such subjects. One of the beautiful things about art, is how it has been used through the centuries as a means of protest, as a vehicle for discussion, as an expression of the artist's feelings which must burst out through their medium. But this is not, it seems, in many people's minds true of the women who use textile and thread as their vehicle.
How many (many) times over the years, have I been scolded and told "art should be pretty!"
Beautiful Monster (a piece about fast fashion) is not exactly political in nature, but does indeed make a statement, and perhaps not one that people are willing to hear, and so it gets a few vague "likes" and "loves", and two closed comments that do not invite further discussion.
Currently, for instance, The American Quilter's Society has pulled two pieces it deems "controversial" from the exhibition Color in Context: Red. One of the censored pieces entitled "Origin" by Yvonne Iten-Scott could be said to depict a vagina and labia; while the other, an abstract depiction of the Red Cross, by Laura Shaw, entitled "Your Mother, Your Daughter. Your Sister. Your Grandmother. You", was also pulled. (Link to one of many articles, here.) The exhibition was one produced by SAQA (Studio Art Quilt Association - an organization I formerly belonged to, and may join again after this!); who pulled the entire exhibit in protest.
Of course, as the article points out, this is not the first time that the AQS has pulled pieces - I remember specifically Kathy Nida's piece "I was not wearing a life jacket" being pulled in 2016 from an exhibit. She and I are professional friends, and this act was devastating and angering to her.
So.
I am proud to say that my piece, "Written on the Body" was hanging in the halls as part of an exhibition at the 2012 Republican Convention, in Tampa, Florida.
The piece represented a commodified woman, crucified by legislation, political platforms and the words used to describe us, written on our bodies like tattoos.
Since 2012, I have, unfortunately, had the distinct displeasure of continually adding more legislation around the cross; and I suspect, under the current administration, there will be much more to come. (More pictures likely forthcoming as I update.)
If art cannot be used to engage one another about important issues, then what is it for?
And if we women cannot open our minds to those who use the "gentle arts" to discuss important issues in the same way, then where are we? And who, exactly, will we be in one year, two years, three years, four years?
No answers here, just speculation.
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