I don't really know what to say. Today has been an amazing day. And also very emotional. And unexpected. And lovely. At the start of this project, I had no idea that I'd be one day away from finishing my first 365 project and be in Philadelphia seeing a piece of my embroidery in a museum. Who could predict that sort of thing?
A little recap: back in 2019 I submitted a piece of embroidery to the Badass HERstory project. Created by Shannon Downey, the project encouraged participants to share their own stories, to be the center of the narrative. I submitted a piece called I am an adult lady who can do things. It had become something me and my friends said to one another after I made a small embroidery piece for my friend Anita with the saying. I used it as the center of my submission and included words I felt described me and what being an adult lady means to me. I used the three basic stitches I learned back when I taught myself to embroider. I sent it off to Shannon and submitted my artist statement. Flash forward to 2021: the National Liberty Museum invited Downey to exhibit her work for an exhibit called Craftivism and 130 Badass HERstory artists are featured as well. The exhibit opened in early November, and I only realized my piece was part of the exhibit after looking at some of her photos from the opening weekend.
So here I am, sitting in the lobby of a Marriott killing time before we head to the train station to go back to DC. Anita joined me on this little adventure, fitting since the first Adult Lady was made for her. We've seen my work in a museum. We had cheesesteak sandwiches. We visited the Benjamin Franklin Museum. We listened to a pipe organ recital in a Macy's. I'm thankful we were able to make this trip given (waves arms around wildly) all of this.
I've always felt weird about using the term artist to describe myself. It wasn't until I started this project that I really embraced it as something I am. Like so many things, we (the big we) treat the term artist as something that has to be granted to a person rather than something they just are. I don't need anyone to tell me that I'm an artist. I don't need permission to say I'm an artist. I'm an artist because I create things. I make things. I take an idea and I figure out how to make it reality in a creative way. I use skills I've learned to turn thread into art. My art is funny, sometimes sentimental, a little whimsical, and always me.
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| Shh - don't tell anyone I took my mask off for a selfie. |
Details:
Stitches: stem and back stitches, French knots
Thread palette: DMC C318 (3), C740 (2), C666 (3), 414 (2), 437 (3)
Photos by me and Anita; video by Anita
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