Monday, October 1, 2012

Double XY

If you read my last blog post, you can see these two pieces are night and day.  I'm back in my comfort zone with this piece.  I used up about 4 weeks on the other quilt, and even as I was finishing it I had started thinking about this.  Something I read about triggered the idea of genes, and I started thinking about the many instances of maverick ( or aberrant ) genes I have seen in my nursing career.  The double XY though is not something you would pickup in an infant. It usually shows up in teenagers, if at all.




Double XY, also called Klinefelter's syndrome, or 47, is a condition where the person has an extra X chromosome. Females are born with two X chromosomes, males are XY, so this syndrome affects males.  For more information, I can refer you to en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Klinefelter's_syndrome.


I worked with someone with this condition, and he ended up having a sex change operation because he always felt female, and she was so much happier after the surgery.  I wonder how many males are out there not even knowing they have this, wondering what's wrong with them.

I made this piece with black cotton that discharged to white, and wool felt for the batting. I added some hand stitched letters at the bottom.  I would like to go back to this idea as I think it would make an interesting series.

12 comments:

Kristin L said...

Karen, I love the simplicity of this. The contrast between the large organic chromosomes and the small, sharp XXYs is super. Starting over was such a good decision. This reads so much better than the Ali piece (nothing against Ali, of course).

Deborah Boschert said...

So provocative! I love the content behind the idea and the stunning design of the quilt. Of course, I want to see it up close because I know your quilts are so full of depth and texture that simply can not be conveyed in a photo.

The hand stitched XXY are really great.

Gerrie said...

I am so happy that you found a way to get back to your comfort zone because this is really wonderful. You have educated us in a very creative way!!

Candied Fabrics said...

Lovely! I'm going to show this to my genetic engineering students, we just covered karyotyping last week.

The hand stitched XXY at the bottom is the bomb! :-)

Diane Perin said...

Karen, I always enjoy seeing how you use your interest in medical/biological/anatomical things to work with the challenge theme. And I love the elegant simplicity of this -- which is, when I think of it, what DNA is. Elegantly simple... until a maverick mutation happens. I love that XY stitching on the bottom, it provides such a subtle but necessary balance.

Brenda said...

The two X chromosomes look like they are engaged in conversation while the Y is on the outer. Which one is the maverick? A life puzzle for some.

I'm glad you went back to the drawing board to create this elegant work for us to enjoy.

kirsten said...

Oh yes, this is wonderful! Beautiful AND meaningful. The stitching at the bottom is the magic touch.

Terri Stegmiller said...

The X's on the left are reminiscent of two people having a conversation or engaging in some way. This was a great idea for your quilt. I also agree with the previous comments regarding the stitching across the lower area.

Nikki said...

I love that you have continued with your medical series. You definitely nailed this one.

Unknown said...

This stand alone as a hauntinh image without the explanation, but I echo my comment on Kristin's quilt that I followed up the link and I like art that educates. The simplicty of this piece is is success.

Terry Grant said...

Amazing that this piece contains so much information and yet is so beautifully simple graphically. The embroidered X es and Y s at the bottom are genius.

Françoise said...

I agree. So simple and effective! My favourite.