New Artwork by Linda Moran
This was a tough piece to do, but it had to be done. It started last Sunday, the day after the Tucson shootings. I wanted to do the Journal Project from 3 Creative Studios, and the goal I set was to work in a 8.5 by 11 inch piece, using only scraps from my stash.
Well, last Sunday I was in deep depression over the shootings and had to work with some fabric. I pulled some blacks that looked like barriers, fencing. One looked like chicken wire, and one like barbed wire. Black and white, barriers. I used the traditional courthouse steps pattern from quilting, and then used red thread for “blood” to stitch those into place. I was staying pretty literal at that point.
From there I wanted to look at the words and ideas that continue to divide us as a country, but I didn’t want it to just be words. What about action on our parts? I printed out the words on white fabric and then sewed them to the background. If you look at the words closely, you’ll see I used a large needle with very fine thread, as I wanted the needle holes to show…like the bullet holes that wound us.
I actually had trouble coming up with the words to use. So many words I thought of are far more inflammatory than I wanted for this piece. I wanted more general terms that would not cause people to fixate on them and get angry. Yes, the vitriol is heating up, but the purpose of this piece is not to add to the anger. I included left-wing as well as right-wing, and if you look, they are on the opposite sides of the quilt. This needs to be about “us,” not “we” and “them.”
I knew I would have a candle with a flame to illuminate the darkness. Again I printed out the names of the shooting victims. I know from visiting the Vietnam Memorial how powerful names can be, and I do not want us ever to forget these six people. I want their lives to shine down on us and help us overcome these horrible things that divide us. I used three different colors of metallic threads to develop the light from the candle. It doesn’t photograph as brightly as it actually is, so I may still add more strands of candle light.
I don’t think – in fact, I know – I’m not done. There is more I need to say through fabric, but I need to get a week or so of distance for myself. Plus, I am having to think through my own issues with some of these words – monitor my own language and actions, as we all should do.
I think we missed the mark on this one. The Tucson shooting is not about hatred , politics or gun control. It is about the dire state of mental health care in this country. Surely, the gunman was mentally ill. Yet, in the aftermath of the shooting, politicians rushed to pass gun control measures, talk shows hosts cited the great political divide, the school where the man attended stated that there was not one incident that would make them suspect he was mentally ill. Oh yeah, his classmates were only scared of him! There is still a lot of stigma attached to mental illness, yet there are so many people suffering from depression. It is time to shed light to the state of mental health in America. We have to many people suffering from mental illness, from depression to schizophrenia. Mental illness is just like any other disease. No one would dare discriminate a person with diabetes, yet we stigmatize someone suffering from depression. Again, we politicized this tragedy, makes a good stump speech for politicians.
Ces, I absolutely agree that we are going to need to look seriously at mental health issues. As a teacher I know that it is so difficult to get help for kids who need someone to talk to and to help them cope with what is going on in their lives. This is the next issue that is saying something to me for a new piece. In the hours after the shooting, when we were desperate for news in Tucson, I think so many of us – myself included – began to reflect back on “what if’s.” All I could think of was 6 lives so brutally lost and countless others changed forever. I want their lives to mean something. These were good people cut down in a senseless act. If the remembrance of them helps us to become better, then I want to see that. And becoming better means doing what you say – no discrimination against anyone for any reason. And yet…in Arizona mental health funding has been cut by 50 percent in the last few years. We are 50th in the nation for education, we rank number 1 for child poverty. May their lives help us to become better in everything we do.
I personally like the piece due to the fact that it is a memorial to the people who suffered. How long will those names be remembered as opposed to the one person who caused the damage? What bright lights were extinguished? What will the media focus on?
Mental health access has been an issue in this part of the country since the mid ’80s when federal taxes were cut and facilities that gave shelter and support began “mainstreaming” people who could not function on their own. There was no budget to care for them. Staff was cut, care was cut and many are trying to cobble together lives and help from nominal resources, and some from none at all.
It is a sad reality of the times when health care in any form is a topic for argument and division.
In grace and peace,
Anne
I mean “too many people”