Bearing Witness

 Several years ago, the art group that I belonged to in Charleston was invited to present an exhibition at Charles Towne Landing, a state park that is situated on the site of the original settlement (www.charlestowne.org) in that area.  This is a beautiful park and well worth a visit if you're in the area.
Anyway, as preparation for the exhibit, the first thing is to get inspiration  for your quilts, right?  So . . .we all spent several hours there walking around, taking pictures and, generally, having a nice time.
I was struck by the carved statue of this Indian.  It is rustic and weather-worn and the expression on his face is one of dignity and (to me) sorrow.  It made me think of how often people are displaced from their homes worldwide--through greed, strife, injustice . . .you name it.  So, he was going to be the subject of my quilt.
Well . . .about that time we moved back to the mountains and my "main man" was put on the back burner due to many things related to moving and life in general.  BUT this winter, I was re-inspired and decided that this was the right time.

With a subject so large--and long--I knew I needed to use a fusible appliqué technique in which I would join sections of his head and headdress and then put the entire piece together.  If you try to do the piece as a whole, it can be really difficult as you manuever the many tiny pieces.
So here is a couple of sections joined together.  By the time I had all of the pieces fused and connected, I was working on four appliqué sheets!  I then GENTLY peeled the whole thing off from the sheets and tacked it onto the background fabric.

Here is the finished top before any thread painting.  I really debated over what to do as I moved forward.  The original carving is well worn by the weather and time.  It has a lot of cracks on its surface.  I wanted to try to duplicate this feeling without making the entire piece one big crack.

And this is the result.  I am fairly well pleased.  Two things to note:
I put a red tear coming from his left eye--representing loss and betrayal.  Also, the symbols on the right side of the quilt are all Native symbols with meanings that I wanted to emphasize--such as courage, peace, friendship, love and good health.
I'm actually glad that I didn't make this quilt  just after my visit to Charles Towne Landing because I think that delay meant that I put more thought and feeling into it.  For me, this quilt represents not only the Native Americans, but also, the slaves that were brought to this country and abused, the Jews that were exterminated during WWII for no other reason than that they were different (as well as the Japanese Americans who were interned), the people today that are being tortured and killed for no other reason than the very fact that they exist . . .All of these people and more .  It is good to stop and think . . .simply think and remember--not to forget--and  to let the remembering prevent us from adding to this list.