Are You Listening?
The adage is one that, although I don't know of a specific example, might well have been found on an eighteenth or nineteenth century girls’ embroidery sampler. Eliza Farrar wrote in The Young Lady’s Friend in 1836 that, "A woman who does not know how to sew is as deficient in her education as a man who cannot write." It was during the seventeenth century that English schoolgirl samplers evolved from practical records of stitches and needlework designs, into moralizing educational show pieces. A completed sampler was physical proof of a certain type and level of young women's education and was displayed with as much pride and sense of achievement as a diploma might be today. Samplers were intended to act as demonstrations of ladylike skills, driving home lessons about exactitude, taste, craftsmanship and domesticity. The little sentiments, mottos, or proverbs, featured in such works convey societal expectations surrounding girls’ behavior and social performance.
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| are you listening |
Hand-quilted Silk and Muslin, Blue Quilting Thread. 4 x 8 inches
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| are you listening - reverse |
This set of quilting projects I've been working on has been a result of my thinking about traditional women's work (with a focus on textiles and needlework and domestic productions), gender roles, the responsibilities placed on young adults today, and specifically the things I have found expected of me, or that I expected of myself, in the first years of post-college adulthood.
Something I seem to repeatedly struggle with is communication. I struggle with finding the courage to speak on certain subjects, and with making myself heard in relationships. I see myself as someone sensitive to subtexts, to the wants and needs of others; because of this (perhaps over-) sensitivity, I may expect the same mental acrobatics of others. But, I'm also a shy person, and often deliberately choose to provide those around me with less information about what I'm thinking and feeling than they are willing to provide me with. The end result can be confusion, anxiety, and frustration on both sides of the conversation.
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| are you listening - reverse detail |
I don’t believe that the ability to sew and the ability to write are, or should be, comparable tests of gendered education; but I am interested in the way that the two skills could be considered parallel. Both writing and needlecraft might be used for communication, might both be modes of expression. The idea that actions might be able to communicate what I find myself unable, or unwilling, to vocalize has, at times, seemed like it would be a great source of relief; however, my in my efforts to explore communication through actions I continue to find discourse more confounding than the adage would suggest. In both verbal and nonverbal expression, I have continued to find myself, in the eyes of those around me, alternatively frustratingly enigmatic or embarrassingly transparent.
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| are you listening - detail |
When I make things, my mind often comes to settle on things I would like to say, or things I did say... but wish I had said better. The energy of the excitement, or anxiety, I channel into the work. The work itself becomes a meditative processing tool, and afterwards, for me, a readable physical record of that particular moment, sentiment and process. With these quilted sketches I am working towards a more communicable physical readability, but also towards a clarity in written and spoken word of my own intentions.
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| are you listening - detail |
*Notice: For those of you with aging eyes, or those of you who would like to see closer, you may click on each and every picture on this blog for an enlarged version of the image.*
I read recently that, in the 1800s, reading and writing (in American schools, at least) were seen and taught as two very different skills. Women learned (primarily) to read, but writing was not expected of them to any large degree and it was not taught. If they could read religious texts, that was largely sufficient. Men were taught specific writing skills, because they were to be able to communicate across distances, conduct commerce, etc. I love it that you choose the writing to be found in women's work, but the voice is of the contemporary woman, as well as being personal to you, the artist.
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