Journal Quilts June-Sept

AND I THOUGH LIME WAS THE NEW BLACK

This quilt happened, too. I don't do solids. They're vegetables, and I am a dessert kind of gal. I hate having to spend money on the solids when there are so many pretty patterned fabrics that want to go home with me. But I digress.

I moved away from NYC before Christos' Gates took over Central Park. I missed something. Did I ? Was it art? I know here in VA, I framed a couple of photos of the installation where people had gotten a scrap of the fabric. It really had by-passed my world. But I went to the Chicago quilt show, and everywhere I turned there were orange quilts. And at leat 4 that were based on the Gates!!!! I did miss --something. I found these awesome beads at a vendor (why do they HAVE to sell beads at the quilt show....far too dangerous!!!) and they were lime and orange. Another quilt just created itself. I even machine quilted the thing!!!



DisCOVER Aquehong -On Display at Houston
See last descripton
IT IS WHAT IT IS
This one never really gelled. I liked the idea, but the overall execution or something still hasn't happened. I used a photo transfer of my brother and myself of the day I perceive as the day that mom left. This whole concept came about because of a discussion on Quiltart (surprise!) about whether it's art if its not about pain. about angst. are pretty pictures truly art? or do you have to have DEEP meaning?



DISC-cOVER // DISC-OVER // DIS-GARD-GUARD AQUEHONGA

On Display at Houston
This triptych has been floating around in my head for around 20 years or more. My great great great grandfather, Ephraim Clark, was a speaker at the Centennial of Staten Island Celebration, and he said that Staten Island was one of the most beautiful places on earth and he hoped that it's future kept pace with it's surrounding. (can't find the exact quote)

Since then, Staten Islands largest claim to fame has been as the worlds largest garbage dump, seen from space, etc.

At one time I thought it would be called Discover Mecca, but times being what they are, I felt that was awkward. Aquehonga is the Native American name for my birthplace. Panel one is as Ephraim saw it. Sun setting in the west, over New Jersey, the Kills providing wetlands and most likely beauty and bounty.
That is how it was Disc covered. Playing on the word DISC, referring to the Sun, and the worship that we have often given to the sun, covering our home and protecting it.
In panel 2, I see the same view, changed. And my how it has changed. The first time I started working across the street from this view, you could still SEE New Jersey. By the time I stopped working at the mall, the horizon of Linden and it’s oil refineries was swallowed by the ever growing mountains of trash that are/were Fresh Kills, the largest landfill in the world. I envisioned grid work silhouetted and the smoke of the refineries changing the color of Ephraim’s sunset. I envisioned panels two and three differently at one time. The DISC is OVER Aquehonga, but it is partly hidden from view by man’s touch.
Today, post 9/11, post landfill closure, Panel 3 has changed. The landfill closure, a long-awaited joy to Staten Islanders was only shortly celebrated; 3 months after closing, it became the final resting place of the Twin Towers, and all that entails emotionally and physically. I have left this island. I see now, the sun, the DISC guarding the discards of our old world. Our innocence. The disc is the link between the earthly, the sky, and the heavens. It warms the soil where the remains of the Towers were laid to rest, the crystals are the souls, earthbound and sent heavenward that day. The phrase in the sky, with the birds flying freely is one that came to me on that day, as I watched the endless souls floating heavenward.