Tag: the rinse cycle

The Story of Women Exhibit: Whispering Bones and Aunt Addie

I told you about Cannonball – a piece in The Rinse Cycle, Pivotal Epiphanies in a Woman’s Life Series –  being on exhibit at the the Milford Arts Council (a.k.a. the MAC) in Connecticut, and today I’m here to tell you about the other two pieces that were selected for inclusion in The Story of Women Exhibit  there . . .

 

The Rinse Cycle Series, Pivotal Epiphanies in a Woman’s Life:
Whispering Bones

About the Series:
We all have them – moments that startle us into utter clarity about the need for significant change. And if we’ve made enough trips around the sun, we know that it’s up to us to create the life we are meant to live, so we grab onto the thread that has guided so many before us – the thread that is being offered to us now – and begin. People – even those who initially quake in fear at how our change might affect their lives – fall in beside us, cheering us on. Ancestors gather round to aid and abet. People we’ll never know grab onto the thread, vowing to live a self-determined life, too. I immortalize the spark and the resolve in art quilts I call The Rinse Cycle, Pivotal Epiphanies in a Woman’s Life.

Size:
25.75” h x 18.5” w

Materials:
Scraps of fabric, commercial fabric, batting, embroidery floss

A Note About This Piece:
The “I Matter” note is tacked open in this photo and in the exhibit. When she finds her way back home to me, I will snip the threads holding the whisper open, fold it back into its envelope shape, and tie it closed using the strip of fabric underneath it.

Artist Statement:
When she needed it most, she heard a whispered sticky note.

 

Pink Galoshes Women: Aunt Addie

About the Series:
Pink Galoshes Women are those who, when confronted with obstacles, pull on their proverbial pink galoshes and tromp on through the mud and the muck to get to where they need and want to go.

Size:
19.5” h x 22.5” w

Materials:
Aunt Addie’s letters (printed, then chopped into chunks and reconnected to create background fabric of top) and photo transferred to fabric; vintage gloves and pearls; beads; embroidery floss; thread; batting; commercial fabric (back)

Artist Statement:
Committed to an insane asylum by six men because “she talked too much,” Aunt Addie found ways to quiet her soul if not her brain.

 

Viewing the Exhibit

The Story of Women is a hybrid – virtual AND brick-and-mortar – exhibit. To view the exhibit in person, visit the Milford Arts Council. To view from the comfort of your home, you have but to click right here.. Be sure to look for Black Wedding Dress, well-deserved winner of Best Story, by Karen Kassap. Right after the exhibit opened, Karen reached out to me via Instagram, and we are becoming the kind of friends I like best: appreciative, supportive, and encouraging. Add her friend Gale Zucker to that list, too. Gale went to see the exhibit yesterday, in support of her good friend, Karen, and afterwards she, too, reached out to me with supportive encouragement. Isn’t it lovely to be friends with so many women who are comfortable and confident enough in their own creative abilities that they feel no need to behave haughtily and be mean? I am blessed.

 

Dates and People’s Choice Award

The exhibit is open through November 19, 2020,. Scroll to the bottom of this page to cast your vote for the People’s Choice Award. Voting closes on November 18 to give them time to count the votes before announcing the winner at the close of the exhibit on November 19, 2020.  (Oh the jokes I could make were I one to delve into politics. But I’m not, so I won’t.)

2: Show and Tale

Today, a story in stitch . . .

FrockSoar9

FrockSoar4

FrockSoar3

FrockSoar1

Then One Day
she knew she had to fly
despite decades of being advised to
remain small and quiet and safe.
Seeing Her soar, the Others began to fly, too
every one of them wondering
why they’d waited so long.

The Rinse Cycle, #1: Pivotal Epiphanies in a Woman’s Life

~~~~~~~

#100 Days 100 Stories
Click in the orange bar at the top of the page
to have it delivered to your door every morning.

featuring a selfie, a memory (or 5), and a wish

being a stone turner of long standing,
i enjoy studying the back sides of art cloths
as much as i enjoy gazing at the front, more public, side . . .

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i flip The Rinse Cycle 2 (a new series) over, and i see
lush
green
growing.
i see every shade of blue
the sky has every worn.

Rinsecycle2back7

i see knots.
some of friendships – unions – marriages – new beginnings
celebrations that bring us together in festival and gladness.
i see knots of hanging on – depression – despair.
i see knots as fists, landing blows in the shape of words
and i see the knots i feel in my stomach
in the wake of the blows,
even after so much time has passed.

Rinsecycle2back1

i see trails taken
and trails not taken.

i see curves in the roads
detours
unexpected
mandatory re-routings.
who could have known?
there were no maps.
there couldn’t be.

Rinsecycle2back5

i see an undisturbed spot of aching
left empty
by those who predeceased me.
gone ahead, some would say,
passed on
left us
died.
they died and are dead.
i do not gloss over death
with prettier words
because it does not change anything
or lessen the longing.

i see those who might have died
but didn’t
and i rejoice.
oh my goodness gracious how i do rejoice.

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i see giant steps
and teensy tentative baby steps.
i see skips
and hops
and gallops
and waltzes.

i see crooked lines
paths that go every which-a-way,
often against the grain.

Rinsecycle2back4

i spy
rolling hills
garden spots
vast and small
planted
tended
harvested.

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i see hope
and life on the verge.
nay, i see life in leaps and bounds
as i stand in the present
remembering the past
and wondering with keen anticipation
and a quickening, actually
about the future.

happy new year to us all.
may we rock it
stitch it
traipse it
paint it
dance it
sing it
color it
hug it
live it
and mark it
as only we can.

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Allow me to introduce myself . . .

Hey, Sugar! I'm Jeanne Hewell-Chambers: writer ~ stitcher ~ storyteller ~ one-woman performer ~ creator & founder of The 70273 Project, and I'm mighty glad you're here. Make yourself at home, and if you have any questions, just holler.

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