Search Results for: tiny pricks

Cheri was one of the people who wrote to me asking me to explain the Tiny Pricks Project.  She  didn’t understand the meaning behind it.

So I did the best I could and a couple of days later she sent me an email saying  that not only did she “get it”, but was going to participate in it.

I love that Cheri asked and that I was able to explain it in a way that she could understand.  It was one of those exchanges that made me really appreciate my blog, even more than I usually do.

Then Marcia wrote and  asked me  for a few hankies.

She and a neighbor both want to do a Tiny Pricks.   A few days ago I wrote that I’d be happy to send a hankie or linen to anyone who wanted to participate in the project and needed a linen to stitch their Trump quote on.

I don’t know which quotes Marcia and her neighbor will be using so I’m sending them a few  hankies and linens to choose from.

That offer still stands, if you want to do a #tinypricks and don’t have a linen to stitch it on,  just email me here at [email protected].

I got some comments on Facebook and a few emails questioning the Tiny Pricks Projects created by Diana Weymar, that I am now participating in.   I wrote about it  and posted a photo of my contribution to it, on my blog on Friday. (you can read it here)

Some people, either don’t understand it, or  feel that  making the presidents words more visible is glorifying them.  That’s they’d rather just let them fade away.

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. 

Last week was difficult for me.  There were a series of things that happened that made me lose sight of myself and brought me back to darker times.

It was during that time that I started working on this fabric collage.  And as often happens with my art, it turned out to be revealing.

I began the piece by cutting off a section of one of the first collages I made.  That’s it in the picture below, above the eye.

I didn’t understand it at the time, but this piece was to become about the inner eye.  About knowing and trusting myself despite what may be going on around me.

In my mind, I saw the shape of the eye turned on its side and it became a shield. I allowed my stitching to take me where it would.  A kind of automatic drawing that I used to do a lot of when I first started free-motion stitching.

I created another shield using the negative space this time.  Inside it, a face with its mouth wide open, speaking its truth.

Along the sides of the piece I used a design inspired by the shell of one of my nerite snails.  Then once I had the back sewn on I did some hand stitching to quilt it and hold it all together.

So many parts of my art came together in this piece.  There’s my quilt making, my early thread drawings, the collages I just started making and the embroidery stitches that I learned from making Tiny Pricks.

In most of my art there an element of the puzzle. Of pulling the cast-off and disparate pieces together to create something new, something beautiful. Like going deep inside of myself and salvaging the pieces that help make me whole.

I believe Inner Eye is sold, but I’m waiting to hear back from someone who asked about it.  If it isn’t, I will be putting it up for sale.

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.