Wednesday, April 11, 2018

#40. 'Piko Baby Blanket One' 28 x 32 American prints, Aloha fabric printed in Japan. Given to Tina's Falin's baby Ginn on her 1st birthday. 9.20.2018

'Piko' is a Hawaiian word that means navel, belly button, center.





#39. 'Triplets, Rain / Thorn Thicket' 62 x 68. Feb/Mar 2018. NFS.

See Mar 10 2019 'It Takes a Village' post for professional photos and closeups.
 I didn't know my friend Gina's daughter was about to have triplets when she came to my opening at Firecat Projects Gallery in Jan. or did I? At any rate, here they are.





As a child I saw a movie that was set in turn of the century Africa; at one point of the story it showed the travelers unable to reach a safe enclosure by sundown start to desperately cut down thorny brush. They built a circle of thorns around their camp to protect themselves from wild animals that hunt at night; a ‘kraal’ (S. African). ‘Kraal’ can mean; a corral for livestock, a grouping of houses and family relations, or a wall of encircling thorns. In my weaving I imagine three sisters surrounded by a kraal; is it meant to protect them from harm, is it to prevent them from leaving, or does it just mean they are sisters and forever entangled?

 

On the reverse side of the weaving, the same triplets are covered in rain. Is it a nourishing blessing, or does it threaten to blot out their forms, or impede their goals?