(Above: A vintage handkerchief on which I've free-motion stitched a "reason for tears". Click on image to enlarge.)
For me, this is risky ... but it is hardly the first time when I've gone out on a political limb to express my opinions. In 2020, I created How Lucky Am I: White Privilege as my way of coping with the trauma caused by the murder of George Floyd and other Black Lives Matter issues. I've made other politically charged artwork too but, for the most part ... especially on social media ... don't rant about my liberal leanings and don't criticize those expressing an opposite point of view. I truly believe that both sides ought to LISTEN MORE and TALK LESS ... but that doesn't seem to be happening in elite circles. I also believe that if one isn't part of a solution, one is part of the problem. So, I'm at a crossroads now. Keeping quiet doesn't solve anything at all. Creating this new installation might not solve any problem either but at least I can be counted among those who believe/know that President Trump is harming our country both internationally and here at home.
Several weeks ago I was approached to participate in a group exhibition called Entartete Kunst: Jasper's Degenerate Art Project. (Click the link to learn more about it, including the title's historical reference to 1937 Nazi exhibit of what they considered "degenerate art".) I said yes and sent this proposal:
Reasons for Tears: An Installation of
Altered Handkerchiefs
My studio practice is rooted in the act of
reclaiming and reimagining forgotten, overlooked, or obsolete
objects—items others might consider mundane or destined for the
landfill. For this project, I have collected over one hundred vintage
handkerchiefs, which I will transform using free-motion machine
embroidery. Each handkerchief will be inscribed with a phrase—a
"reason for tears"—expressing grief and dismay in
response to executive orders and policy proposals from the Trump
administration, particularly those impacting economics, foreign
affairs, immigration, the environment, culture, and the rights of
marginalized communities.
These embroidered handkerchiefs will be suspended
in a site-specific yet adaptable/flexible installation, bearing
silent witness to sorrow and protest. Together, they will speak to
the emotional weight of systemic intolerance, racial injustice,
economic instability, the erosion of human rights, political
polarization, and countless other causes for mourning.
With the formal announcement of the upcoming
Jasper Project exhibition, I will launch a crowd-sourcing campaign
to collect additional handkerchiefs and phrase suggestions. If
possible, a notebook will accompany the installation, inviting
visitors to contribute their own "reasons for tears,"
allowing the work to evolve in dialogue with its audience.
(Above: The first seven finished handkerchiefs.)
Each handkerchief is free-motion stitched using an adhesive-backed, water-soluble stabilizer. Once stitched, lots of rinsing is involved to dissolve that tissue. It is a time consuming task and the list I have is lengthy but I truly want others to be involved ... if only to express themselves, count themselves among those who are seriously worried about the direction the current administration is taking. So ... if you are so inclined, please mail a handkerchief (preferably one of those pretty vintage ones!) to me at 320 North Church Street, Central, SC 29360. I promise to send a thank you note to your post-marked address. Also, please scan over the list of "reasons for tears" below. Email me your addition to mouse_house@prodigy.net.
1.
For Kilmar Abrego Garcia who was illegally deported to El Salvador
2.
For Robert F. Kennedy Jr. casting doubt on the safety of vaccines
3.
For Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s statements suggesting that vaccines might
cause autism
4.
For a judge ruling that Columbia student Mahmoud Khalil can be
deported
5.
For the State Department telling employees to report on each other
for anti-Christian bias.
6.
For the The Trump administration moving forward with cutting Maine's
K-12 funding over transgender kids in girls' school sports.
7.
For the White House replacing a portrait of former President Obama
with pop art of Trump with his fist in the air after the
assassination attempt on him.
8.
For on-going confusion over tariffs
9.
For targeting books perceived to be dealing with DEI and "gender
ideology" for removal from libraries.
10.
For threatening to revoke Harvard's tax-exempt status
11.
For planning an overhaul of the Endangered Species Act by redefining
the word "harm"
12.
For issuing a halt to construction on a New York wind energy project
that would power 500,000 homes
13.
For a transceiver for Musk's Starlink satellite network on the roof
of GSA headquarters
14.
For sparking a constitutional crisis
15.
For putting tariffs on an island of penguins
16.
For withdrawing the USA from the World Health Organization
17.
For changing the acceptable level of water pressure in shower heads
18.
For criticizing FEMAs efforts after Hurricane Helene
19.
For declaring that U.S. policy recognizes only two sexes, male and
female.
20.
For directing agencies to ensure federal funds “do not promote
gender ideology.”
21.
For trying to end all diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility
programs, policies and mandates across the federal government.
22.
For directing the government to terminate all positions related to
DEI
23.
For DOGE and its over-reaching guidelines to streamline the
government
24.
For revoking security clearances of former intelligence officials
25.
For repealing Biden-era executive orders, including the task force
aimed at reuniting migrant families
26.
For repealing Biden-era executive orders, including protections for
LGBTQ people
27.
For repealing Biden-era executive orders, including those dealing
with climate change
28.
For threatening birth right citizenship
29.
For the United States withdrawal from the Paris Agreement
30.
For renaming the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America in federal
references.
31.
For calling for a physical wall and other barriers on the southern
border
32.
For ending DEI programs in federal agencies
33.
For revoking two of Biden's executive orders on abortion access which
sought to ensure safety at clinics and pharmacies
34.
For barring transgender people from serving in the military
35.
For allowing service members discharged from the military for
refusing the COVID vaccine to be reinstated and receive full back
pay, benefits, or compensation.
36.
For ending gender-affirming medical care for minors
37.
For directing the Education Department to prioritize school choice
programs through its discretionary grants
38.
For the tariffs on Canadian and Mexican imports
39.
For escalating the trade war with China
40.
For declaring that the U.S. will not participate in the United
Nations Human Rights Council
41.
For eliminating the Federal Executive Institute
42.
For eliminating paper straws in federal agency buildings.
43.
For commencing a reduction of The Presidio Trust, the Inter-American
Foundation, the United States African Development Foundation and the
United States Institute of Peace.
44.
For Elon Musk twice doing what resembled a Hitler salute
45.
For pardoning more than 1,500 people convicted for January the riot
charges
46.
For seeking to block federal funding to NPR
47.
For suggesting that the US would takeover Gaza and turn it into a
lavish beach paradise
48.
For Trump supporting Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth after he shared
sensitive military attack plans with a journalist
49.
For calling Ukraine President Volodomyr Zelensky a dictator
50.
For threatening to take over Greenland
51.
For suggesting Canada would become the fifty-first state
52.
For signing an executive order to eliminate the Department of
Education
53.
For purging top staff of the National Archives
54.
For shuttering the White House Office of Gun Violence Prevention
55.
For slashing jobs at the Department of Veterans Affairs
56.
For RFK Jr. downplaying the severity of a measles outbreak in Texas
57.
For baselessly blaming a deadly mid-air collision of a military
helicopter and a passenger jet on DEI initiatives
58.
For claiming the U.S. spent $50 million on condoms for Gaza
59.
For claiming the US spent millions making mice transgender
60.
For Trump’s takeover of the Kennedy Center for Performing Arts and
declaring himself its chairman
61.
For the Naval Academy library’s purge of books by Maya Angelou
while retaining Hitler’s Mein Kampf.
62.
For the Pentagon briefly blocking web pages and training materials
dedicated to the Tuskegee Airmen, the Navajo codebreakers, Jackie
Robinson, and Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASPs)
63.
For ordering a crackdown on supposed “anti-American ideology” at
the Smithsonian Institution
64.
For cutting thousands of jobs at the Forest Service and National Park
Service
65.
For Trump calling pollsters criminals who should be investigated
66.
For plans to move against sanctuary cities
67.
For granted coal-fired power plants a two-year reprieve from a
requirement to reduce harmful emissions
68.
For reducing the minimum wage for federal contractors
69.
For stalling the implementation of a rule that would protect miners
from silica exposure
70.
For limiting federal workers’ collective bargaining agreements
71.
For gutting the worker safety agency NIOSH
