2021
... with the passing of my sister, my mom, and my aunt Moreen
there just seem to be so much more to share.
Broken Threads Still Bind
Intaglio Deboss [recess relief] handmade ( doily ) matrix, embellished with metallic threads, baked clay figures and beads on Wild Cat handmade paper. —(Printmaking)
‘Broken Threads Still Bind’ is the last piece of a series I refer to as ‘Surviving Death, Resurrecting Memories ... the conversation continues.’ It started with a singular doily, a fundraiser: a wonderful initiative gifting art to the newly homed, homeless, a token towards a renewed life that was so satisfying it inspired a body of work that is more a memorial to my late mother Redente (Rita) Luchese. An amazing seamstress, she taught me the skills of sewing and introduced the idea of play as making - we were often enlisted to help make little doll dresses as she worked for Regal Toys. She never cared much for knitting but did pass on embroidery, crocheting, and much more. In rooting through years and years of her stuff, I found some beautiful old doilies and wondered if I ever thanked her, in a way, this body of print-based work may just be doing that. Using the skills, she passed on, treasured doilies, her own threads, embroidery supplies, odds and ends combined with debossed (recessed relief) prints, this body of work not only triggered memories long thought lost, resurrected much, much more. The reality of an end of life struggle is so horrific, the inability to help, the helpless, the failure to communicate, the fading, the failing, are the memories that haunt and are so very difficult to dissipate, causing grief to hover thick. I was surprised to find this body of work lifted the fog, letting surface the memories that truly are meant to be kept. Now I can smile at the recollections the work inspired, a tad strange but even stranger, fulfilling. The balance of the series is now isolating at Quest Art School and Gallery in Midland included in a group exhibition, ‘No one even the poets’ with Michele Karch-Ackerman and Tina Poplawski, curated by Virginia Eichhorn waiting till spring when it will be awaken, much like Sleeping Beauty. As I worked on this last piece during the pandemic I found myself embellishing the recessed relief with oddities that made me smile, clay figures, and metallic threads, it will be interesting to see how this body of work evolves from here.
‘Broken Threads Still Bind’ is the last piece of a series I refer to as ‘Surviving Death, Resurrecting Memories ... the conversation continues.’ It started with a singular doily, a fundraiser: a wonderful initiative gifting art to the newly homed, homeless, a token towards a renewed life that was so satisfying it inspired a body of work that is more a memorial to my late mother Redente (Rita) Luchese. An amazing seamstress, she taught me the skills of sewing and introduced the idea of play as making - we were often enlisted to help make little doll dresses as she worked for Regal Toys. She never cared much for knitting but did pass on embroidery, crocheting, and much more. In rooting through years and years of her stuff, I found some beautiful old doilies and wondered if I ever thanked her, in a way, this body of print-based work may just be doing that. Using the skills, she passed on, treasured doilies, her own threads, embroidery supplies, odds and ends combined with debossed (recessed relief) prints, this body of work not only triggered memories long thought lost, resurrected much, much more. The reality of an end of life struggle is so horrific, the inability to help, the helpless, the failure to communicate, the fading, the failing, are the memories that haunt and are so very difficult to dissipate, causing grief to hover thick. I was surprised to find this body of work lifted the fog, letting surface the memories that truly are meant to be kept. Now I can smile at the recollections the work inspired, a tad strange but even stranger, fulfilling. The balance of the series is now isolating at Quest Art School and Gallery in Midland included in a group exhibition, ‘No one even the poets’ with Michele Karch-Ackerman and Tina Poplawski, curated by Virginia Eichhorn waiting till spring when it will be awaken, much like Sleeping Beauty. As I worked on this last piece during the pandemic I found myself embellishing the recessed relief with oddities that made me smile, clay figures, and metallic threads, it will be interesting to see how this body of work evolves from here.
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