Search Results for: tinypricks

We were having dinner with friends and Jon was talking about The Army of Good and the work he’s been doing at Bishop Maginn High School and at The Mansion in response to the 2016 election.  Then Ellen asked me what my reaction to the election was.

But it took me till the next day to realize how my art has changed since 2016.  My Show Your Soul Posters,  Flying Vulvas, and Yoni Trees are all a result of my focusing more on women and women’s issues thanks to having a misogynist in the White House.

And then, of course, I’ve been participating in The Tiny Pricks Project.

It’s been a while since I made a #tinyprinks. That’s because lately, I haven’t been listening to the news.  Sometimes the news becomes overwhelming to me and I have to take a break from it.

But when I found out that The Tiny Pricks Project was going to be at The Foundry in West Stockbridge MA, which is about an hour away, I got inspired. Jon and I are planning on going to the gallery this weekend and I want to bring a #tinypricks with me.

For a while, I’ve been wanting to make a #tinypricks using the quote “She had blood coming out of her eyes, blood coming out of her wherever”.   Trump used it to describe Megyn Kelly when she was asked a question about him calling women “fat pig, dogs, slobs, and disgusting animals” during the 2015 debate.

There are many Trump quotes that I could use, and many of them more recent.  But for me, this one says so much about Trump’s feelings towards women.  And even though quite a few people have already used it, I think it bears repeating.

I’ve been saving my tampon strings and using them in my art since 2007.  So when I thought to embroider this quote, replacing the embroidery thread with my used tampon strings seemed a natural thing to do, especially with the very red hankie I had.

I was a little surprised at how empowering it feels to stitch those words in my own blood.  Like I’m not only reclaiming them, but all the ignorant and demeaning things that men have said to me personally throughout my life about women and menstrual blood.

Anyone can participate in The Tiny Pricks Project.  Find out how here. 

And if you need a hankie to embroider your #tinypricks on, I’ll be happy to send you a few, just email me here. 

It’s the simplicity of this quote from Donald Trump’s phone call with President Zelenskiy, trying to get him to investigate Joe Biden in exchange for monetary aid to Ukraine, which makes it so powerful.

Powerful enough to launch the impeachment process against Trump.

You don’t have to know anything about politics to understand it. Like a line from a mob movie, it’s meaning is clear and obvious, You scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours.  

As I see it, this is the Trump finally getting caught in an illegal and unethical way of behaving that has worked for him his whole life, inside the White House and out.   And for once, he is being held accountable for his actions.

I thought this hankie was just right for the quote because it’s a souvenir of the Captial.  But also because of the phallic nature of the Washington Monument as a symbol of the toxic masculinity of Donald Trump.

There always seems to be another quote from Donald Trump worthy of a  #tinypricks.   One of the things that I love about #tinypricks is the inherently feminine collaborative nature of it.  Everyone is invited to be a part of it.  You can find out how here.  

And if you need a vintage linen to embroider your #tinypicks on, I’ll be happy to send you a few.  Just email me at [email protected].

I was inspired by our president, once again, to make a new #tinypricks.

The words I chose this time are the now-famous ones from the phone call between Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelenskiy, the President of Ukraine.  Trump was trying to get Zelenskiy to investigate his campaign rival, Joe Biden by threatening to hold back aid to Ukraine.

“ I would like you to do us a favor, though...”

These simple words are a loaded innuendo and the perfect example of how Trump operates.  They’ve been compared to the kind of language a mob leader would use.  And they have launched the impeachment process that we are now experiencing.

You can find out more about and how to participate in #tinypricks here.  And if you need a vintage linen or hankie to stitch your tinyprick on, I’d be happy to send you one, just email me at [email protected].

You can see my six other #tinypricks here. 

I’ve been following #tinypricks on Instagram for a while with the intention of participating, but never did till now.

The Tiny Pricks Project was created by Diana Weymar.  She asked people to find quotes by Donald Trump, embroider them on linens and send them to her.  She now has a growing collection   and is  exhibiting her Tiny Pricks Project in galleries around the country.

Weymar describes her intention for this project on her website Tiny Pricks Project:

“Like so many others, I am trying 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.

This series holds a creative space in a tumultuous political climate. 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.”

To me Tiny Pricks is an example of the Divine Feminine at work.   It’s strength comes from being  direct, tenacious and creative.

I found the Trump quote, “I sorta get away with things like that” a while ago.  It comes from an interview where he was asked about “bursting” into the Miss Universe Pageant dressing room.

To me the quote speaks not only to this one incident, but of so much of Trumps presidency and his life before he became president.  Donald Trump is used to getting away with things.  He’s good at it and from what I can see, has no moral qualms about it.   Just the opposite, he embraces it.

It was a few messages that I recently got about the  #tinypricks article in The New Yorker and  Trump’s comments to Representatives Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar, Ayanna S. Pressley and Rashida Tlaib, to  “go back and help fix the totally broken and crime infested places from which they came,”  that finally moved me to action to join the Tiny Pricks Project.

I had the quote, now I just needed to find the linen to sew it on.

So I went through my shelves and boxes and found the hankie with the red, white and blue crocheted flower and edging.

It was perfect.

I never hand stitched letters before, and didn’t have an embroidery ring, but  I wasn’t going to let that stop me.  I had procrastinated on this one too long.

This morning I sent an email with a photo of the hankie to Diana Weymar.   Since she’s traveling around the county, she’s asking people to email her photos of their pieces and she’ll send them an address of where the next show will be so they can be included.

It’s a continually growing exhibit.  And I’m very glad to be a part of it.  She encourages people to enter more than one piece and to spread the word.

I’m doing both.  The Trump quotes are as plentiful as my supply of linens.

If you’d like to participate in the Tiny Pricks Project, you can read all about it here.

And if you have a quote, but not a hankie or linen to stitch it onto, I’ll be more than happy to send you one.   I couldn’t think of a better use for them.  Just email me here at [email protected].

You can see all the other Tiny Pricks here. 

I see him out of the corner of my eye, stop drawing and move one of the pebbles from one side of the milk crate to the other.  “Hi,” I say cheerfully, “you can go right in.”  He smiles and says thanks, puts on his mask, and walks into the Co-op.

I know him, not his name, but the way you know people who live in the same small town.  I’ve seen him get into this car at the post office and hardware store.  The car patchworked with bumper stickers supporting Trump’s rhetoric, much of it maligning women.

His politics are more than just the opposite of my politics.  It feels personal.  But for the next hour it’s my job to keep track of how many people are going in and out of the Co-op, only five people allowed at a time.

I think of the Trump rally that’s going to take place on Main Street in our town on Saturday and I feel a flash of anger.

When Trump was elected president I told myself the one thing I would not do was be divisive. I was not going to join Trump’s campaign to further divide us.

But figuring out what how to do that while still speaking my truth has been an evolving task.

Sometimes it means avoiding talking politics completely.  But it also means hanging a Black Lives Matter sign from the clothesline. It means making sure to keep good relationships with friends and acquaintances I know or believe might be Trump supporters.  It means continuing to create art that affirms individuality and the importance of “Showing Your Soul” It means participating in #tinypricks.  It means listening and not instigating when people do talk politics no matter what side they’re on and trying to rationally get my point across without it becoming an angry argument.

I have not always been successful, but I have tried to be mindful.

In small towns, you quickly learn not to have feuds with your neighbors.  There’s a good chance you might need each other sometime.  That’s when we see how much alike we really all are.

I don’t want to even drive by the Trump rally because I don’t want to see which of my neighbors will be there. And I know and believe they have as much a right to walk down Main Street with their signs as me and about 150 other people had the right to stand on the corner of Main Street supporting Black Lives Matter.

This is the divide.  There is no room for nuance when the empty space between us is filled with anger.

“Have a nice day”, I say to the man as he comes out of the Co-op his empty canvas bag now filled.  As I move the pebble back it almost feels as if we’ve achieved a heroic act of civility.

It was powerful to see The Tiny Pricks Project in person after seeing photos of it on Instagram for so long.

I couldn’t help looking for mine.  The exhibit is also going on in Miami right now so not all the #tinypricks are at The Foundry, the gallery we saw them at today.   It took a while for me to find mine with all the others, but I did see three of the ones I made.

I loved my work being a part of that floor to ceiling mosaic.

One of the things I love about #tinypricks is how, from a distance, the exhibit appears soft and colorful and visually intriguing.  It’s only when you get up close and see all the embroidered Donald Trump quotes that you feel the true power of the exhibit.

And when you know that each piece was hand-stitched by different people from all over the world it has an even greater impact.

Although Tiny Pricks is the genius of Diana Weymar, she has brought so many of us together through it. And we all, those of us who participate and those who view it, benefit from it. I dropped off my 9th #tinypricks at The Foundry today.

Tiny Pricks will be at The Foundry through the weekend of the 21st when they will be having a voter registration event.  They are also open on Tuesday evenings and provide materials so people can get together at the gallery and create their own Tiny Prick.

We’re off to The Foundry in West Stockbridge MA to see The Tiny Pricks installation there.  I’m bringing my latest Tiny Pricks, There Was Blood embroidered with my used tampon strings.

When Joann bought the last of my wool and a Flying Vulva Decal she sent a note asking if I could include a hankie or linen for her to stitch a Tiny Prick on.

She had an idea to use one of Trump’s tweets concerning the impeachment proceedings.  So I went through the box of hankies that Cathy sent me which had belonged to her mother.  Cathy wrote in a note that I might be able to use one for a #tinyprick.

Thank you Cathy, so far I’ve used at least one myself and shared a few others with people who also wanted to be a part of The Tiny Pricks Project. 

When I saw the hankie from Washington DC I just had to send it to Joann.  I sent her a few other hankies too, so she could make her own choice about which one to use.

A week or so later Joann sent me this photo of her #tinyprick. 

She did such a great job, spacing the words around the  US Capitol and other buildings. And I love the way she used the red and blue thread.  A perfect #tinyprick really.

If anyone out there would like to make a #tinyprick and needs a vintage hankie or linen to embroider a Trump quote on, you can email me here at [email protected].  I’m happy to share the linens that people have been generous enough to share with me over the years.

You can find out how to participate in Diane Weymar’s Tiny Pricks Project here and see all the #tinypricks including Joann’s here.

It still seems crazy to me that our president can say things like  “There’s a lot of sand there for them to play with” referring to people fighting and dying in wars and a few weeks later most of us don’t even remember it.

I think that’s one of the reasons why the Tiny Pricks Project is so important.

Because these things that Donald Trump says, as president of the United States, are too cruel, thoughtless and potentially dangerous to just be forgotten without any consequence.

It was only two weeks ago that Trump made this comment referring to the fighting between Syria and Turkey and the attack on the  Kurds when Trump pulled the US troops out of Syria.  But I know that  Trump has used enough outrageous and dismissive language about so many other events that are happening since then that something he said two weeks ago almost seems like years ago.

This is my 8th contribution to #tinypricks.  And by now I know, unfortunately, that I’ll be making many more.

Anyone can participate in The Tiny Pricks Project, click here to find out how.

And if you need a hankie or linen to stitch your quote on I’ll be happy to send you one.  Just email me at [email protected].

See all the #tinypricks here. 

I took my #tinypricks to the Chiropractor’s office today.  I usually have a bit of a wait so I figured it would be a good place to finally start stitching the words on the Tiny Pricks I came up with a couple of weeks ago.

This #tinypricks is from Trump’s quote about the fighting between Syria, Turkey and the attack on the Kurds after Trump announced the US would be withdrawing troops.  His quote is:

“There’s a lot of sand they can play with there.”

I get inspired about The Tiny Pricks Project every time I go on Instagram and see what other people are doing.  It truly is a creative political community.

You can be a part of it too.  To find out all about it click here.  And if you need a hankie or linen to stitch your quote on, I’ll be glad to send you one, just email me here.