I woke up this morning to Beto O’Rourke’s voice. Jon was watching a video of his reaction to the shooting in El Paso yesterday.
What O’Rourke said, was precisely how I felt, but couldn’t articulate.
My art often becomes my voice in times like this. After the shooting at the Stoneman Douglas Highschool I created my Crocheted Gun and Babyblanket sculpture. Then I had postcards made of it and sent them to my representatives.
There have been other shooting since then, but I often finding myself feeling numb to the news, surprised and disturbed at how easy it has become for me to just accept mass shootings as a part of life in America.
But this morning I found voice in O’Rourke’s words.
And after hearing about the second shooting in Dayton Ohio, my mind went to the Tiny Pricks Project, which has given me another place to take my anger and feelings of hopelessness when it comes to politics.
The Tiny Pricks Project was started by Diana Weymar to “process this presidency in a way that doesn’t involve withdrawing from following politics. This project is about witnessing, recording, taking notes in thread, and paying attention. Paying attention to his words.”
Weymar invites anyone to take quotes from Donald Trump and embroider them on linens. She says, “Tiny Pricks Project counterbalances the impermanence of Twitter and other social media, and Trump’s statements by using textiles that embody warmth, craft, permanence, civility, and a shared history. The daintiness and strength of each piece stands in a stark contrast to his presidency.”
But she also uses quotes, that define Trumps presidency, from people other than the president.
So I listened to the Beto O’Rourke’s words till I found the right ones for my next Tiny Pricks. Then I emailed Diana Weymar (as she asks people to do when using a quote that isn’t from Trump), to make sure she could use it in the project.
She got back to me 15 minutes later saying she would find a way to use the quote. “Send it in!” she wrote, “ox Diana.”
Diana’s goal is to have 2,020 Tiny Pricks Pieces by the next presidential election in 2020.
After making my first Tiny Pricks, I put aside some linens that I thought might work for another one. So I knew which linen I would use. The one with the Mexican man embroidered on it.
For my first Tiny Pricks I did it all freehand. This time wrote the words out on paper first, then roughly measured them and wrote them on the linen in pencil.
And I now have an embroidery hoop, which makes stitching the words so much easier that I hope to finish this tonight and send it off to Diana, in the mail tomorrow.
You can read more about the Tiny Pricks Project here or follow it on instagram at #tinypricksproject.
And if you’d like to participate in the Tiny Pricks Project but don’t have a linen or hankie to stitch your quote on, I’ll be happy to send you one. Just email me here at [email protected]
