When I pondered the theme of identity, I first thought of an ID card, such as a driver’s license--a little piece of plastic-coated information that describes some basic information about oneself.
But what really identifies me? I thought about this and started jotting notes about my identity. Who I am. What I do. The roles I play.
I came up with a list of nine distinguishing labels that I could give myself at this point in my life. Of course there could be many, many more, but these nine were the most prevalent. And of course, over the course of my life, these labels have changed and will continue to change.
The nine labels of identity I identified are: daughter, wife, mother, sister, cook (because I do that more often than I’d prefer), artist, quilter, teacher, and friend. Now I realize that artist and quilter probably could be one in the same, but I do other types of art besides quilting, so that was my justification for having them separate.
The idea I interpreted for my quilt was that sometimes these labels of identity can be singled out during specific times of the day, and sometimes they can all be jumbled and I am many of these things all at once. Therefore, resulting in a sort of colorful and crazy look. I utilized the alphabet stitch feature of my sewing machine and stitched these nine label names on the “crazily sticking straight out of my head” strands of hair. They were stitched in a matching thread, therefore are difficult to read--just as it may be difficult to sometimes determine which identity role I am portraying at any given moment.
7 comments:
Terri, this is so cute, it almost has a ying/yang quality to it. The colors a great and I really like the stitching.
I love the face and love the idea, much like mine, that identity is no one thing. You could have gone on and on, I'm sure! Your work has its own strong "identity" for sure.
This is just plain fun to look at! I like the more whimsical departure from your usual faces and the label hair is a nice secondary read. I'd love to see more moon/sun faces :-)
Ooh, Terri, this is gorgeous. I love how it incorporates a face (which is a big piece of your artistic identity) but this is more abstract than your usual images. The 9 different roles (boy, do I relate) work beautifully as petals. And I like that this is moon-like, somehow -- the face elements and dark background, which bring in the female energy.
Gorgeous, gorgeous.
I agree with everyone else. When this popped up on the screen when I woke up in KC, it made me smile and I knew it was you. I love how you have done this face.
Oh, beautiful! There is such a sweetness in this quilt. I find it enormously appealing and wish I had made it :)
This is lovely! I knew it was you before reading your name. You found such a great way to show all these roles of yours. Well done.
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