Identity X 9

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.