a prayer, a promise (2022)

hand spun and hand dyed wool, gifted angora bunny wool, cotton, found rope

land, home, medicine, ancestors, past, present, future, showing the buck's footprints, making art, making bad art, taking care, in, self, cultivating intimacy, spiritually, emotionally, woven stories, accessing spaces and knowledge, the power of community, the privilege of knowing, practices of connection. . .

This piece is called a prayer, a promise and it is a tactile, visual, poetic reminder of multifaceted meaning which I wish to carry forward and share stemming from my time in Carey Newman’s classroom during my last semester of University. This piece is inspired by and bloomed from the culture of our classroom.

a prayer, a promise features three panels woven on a hand loom and slow-stitched together. The wool hand spun, a skill I learned from a classmate. It is dyed using KEKILC (qwuh-qwuh-eee-th-ch) which I foraged after a storm and JSAY (J-Say), foraged from trees cut down by park employees, along with onion and avocado skins given to me by my classmates and professor. From the native and non-native plant dyes emerges a story of calling a place home and actively decolonizing as a descendent of European colonizers.

As I am learning to forage in a good way I walk with the grief of knowing that part of colonial genocide has been to remove Indigenous peoples from their food and medicines (Bryce & Corntassel). This is something I will continue to learn about as I deepen my knowledge and relationship to these lands and waters I occupy.

This multifaceted work embodies ongoing learning, care and community. It embodies sharing knowledge and resources. It embodies taking care and giving care.

It is a teaching.

it is a prayer, it is a promise, it can be hung on a wall, it can wrap around gifts and other objects of meaning, it can hold and be held