April 6th was the first thread drawing, the first entry, as I think of it, on my Corona Kimono.
When I look back at it now, I see the words “A low hum of menace” stitched in purple thread. I remember that feeling, the uncertainty I and so many other people were feeling. The expectation of the unknowable.
There’s still so much we don’t know, but it does seem evident that the virus isn’t traveling through the mail. I don’t know of anyone who is still washing down packages or leaving mail in their garage overnight.
But the USPS is once again on people’s minds.
This time in regards to mail-in voting, a necessary service for so many people, like me and Jon, who don’t want to risk going to a polling station to vote, during the pandemic.
And like everything else regarding the Corona Virus, there is political controversy surrounding it.
Voter suppression has a long history in our country, beginning with the Founding Fathers who severely restricted who could vote. It has manifested in some complicated ways over the centuries and this year it’s coming, from our Federal Government, in the form of severely limiting the mail service.
Ever since I started my business, I’ve had a very personal relationship with the post office, which I visit several times a week to ship my art, and the people who work there.
When I think of the first months of the Corona Virus Shut-down and how the postal clerks at my post office, Wendy and Josie, believed they may have been risking their lives to keep the post office going, I get choked up at their courage and commitment.
What I don’t get is how the Post office was important enough to keep open and potentially risk the lives of the people who worked there a few months ago and now it’s just a financial burden.
I made some practice drawing last night as I was listening to the Democratic Convention. Because of our history, I understand that some of us will probably always have to fight to vote. But I never imagined we’d have to fight for our post office.
You can see the history of my Corona Kimono since that first April 6th entry here.
This kimono is quite an inspired undertaking….I imagine it traveling the country and then ending up in a museum some day.
Thank you Gina. It’s so good to get that kind of affirmation about my Corona Kimono. It’s been such a long term piece, I’m not used to working one thing for so long. I’m glad to hear it’s not losing it mojo.
Maria – Every time you post an update of your kimino, I think of the Smithsonian and how it collects historical artifacts that represent a given moment or period of time. Your kimino should be part of its collection (should you ever be willing to part with it!). It really is amazing.
Thanks for sharing it with us.
Thank you Margaret. A few people have said similar things about my Corona Kimono being in a musuem. I meant to contact the Williams Collage Museum in MA at someones suggestiong and just forgot about it. This is a good reminder.
Truly, this need a to be in a museum. To document the time, the terror, the resilience, and the victory of art over all.
Thank you Jeanne. It really has been all those things.