holiness (previously, Stones) (2016)

Hand-dyed cotton, machine pieced

80 x 76 inches

I have been working with the idea of stones for about ten years and have done many small pieces as I explored various ways of conveying in cloth my feelings about stones; a number of these are displayed on the wall of small works. I did trials with appliqué of stone-like shapes, pieced rectangles of fabric painted with the textures and colors of stones, stitched lines, drawings, cut paper. While I made each of the other major quilts in this series, I kept thinking about stones and doing these small pieces. Finally, it was the last idea left, of all those that had been waiting for a turn in the series. Scheduling an exhibit for 2016 was, in part, a way to nudge me to make a final, large, quilt on this subject.

I culled my design ideas to a few possibilities, all of which would require hand-dyed fabrics in neutral colors. As I planned the color mixes, I found myself drawn to gray rather than tan or rust, so I limited my dyeing to a range of grays. When I looked at the results, I found myself especially drawn to an array of very pale gray colors.

This Inclination of my eye and heart led me to an understanding and decision about the aspect of stones that I was moving into: the quality of holiness. My original commitment to stones as a subject has its origin in the Jewish practice of leaving small stones on a grave. I've thought about why one would leave a token of a visit, and why stones serve so well as such a token. I've been drawing stone shapes for many years now, thinking that the beauty of the shapes would be the focus of a quilt. But I also wanted to work abstractly, extracting from the stone as an object something of the quality that so draws me to it. As I puzzled over my attachment to the pale gray fabrics, the idea of holiness settled into my mind: the holiness of the place where the stones are left (the cemetery itself, as well as the grave of a loved one) and the holiness of the relationship (of the love, of the attachment, of the grief) that is embodied in the gesture of leaving a stone. The pale gray comes from the color of stones, but also carries the quiet of the cemetery, and the solace of the visit.