Politics : Fabric - the minimum wage

I'm just wondering if you think the two mix. I figure if it worked for Betsy Ross, it ought to still sort of stand for the real day to day life and how it looks at the issues of our day.

Crazy ideas I've had for political art quilts include my latest rant - the minimum wage. I haven't done the math out, but I do know that someone working 40 hours a week at the federal minimum wage still doesn't make enough money to break the federal poverty line. How stupid is THAT? It would seem to me that figuring out what the minimum wage ought to be should be a pretty simple calculation, namely poverty line amount divided by 52 (for the weeks in our vacationless and never sick working joe's year)and then divide your result by 40 for the number of hours in a full working week, American-style. Shouldn't THAT number be the minimum wage, ie the minimum amount someone can make an hour and still NOT fall below the poverty line and be able to get some sleep and have time to eat? (If they can *afford* somewhere to sleep and something to eat on what the federal government thinks they can, ie the poverty line.)

So - how to show this in fabric? I think fabric is actually the PERFECT medium for this subject, (other than dollar bills themselves, which, being printed on cotton rag themselves are pretty much fiber objects to begin with) being about daily life.

Idea #1: Some sort of mosaic-like graph of actual wage vs poverty line wage. Lame, but first anyway.

Idea #2: Seven panels wide - one for each day of the week. Photo transfer image of person at different minimum wage job printed at top of each. Money actually paid (the real US currency, since I mentioned it) glued beneath, then beneath *that*, the money that the person DIDN'T get for each day, dyed red bills, painted red coins, and below *that* an image of what that money would have gone towards in the life of a person actually living at the poverty line, like fresh fruit, bus fare, or even protein other than beans (horrors!) Then quilt the whole sucker with words; words that people use to describe folks who manage to get up and face another day at or below the poverty line. Words that I would never want to be called, and won't repeat here. You get the idea.

I actually really like that image, so I'll stop there. BTW - sorry I'm not actually drawing that for you and posting it as my uber-blogger friends would, but I'm just not feeling that cool today, or ever, really. So - where to show said quilt? I mean I *could* make it and just hang on to it, but a quilt about something this important should be SEEN. Somehow though, I just don't see it going over very well at the Vermont Quilt Show. The prize-winning quilt this year was about a pretty group of Native American women; that is about as much cultural guilt most shows seem to be willing to deal with. And, no offense intended, but many of the small, fringy shows that actually DO show politically progressive work all just preach to the choir when you get right down to it. How frustrating THAT would be.

Anyway, that is what I *would* quilt about right now, babies and all, if I thought it would make any difference what so ever, but it wouldn't and I just don't need that kind of disappointment right now.

People who continue to make and actually show political art must be just as hardworking, dedicated/desperate, and able to deal with frustration as those folks working and living at or below the poverty line are. Then again, many of the folks that I know that fit into either category have problems with alcohol and/or relationships. I guess art DOES imitate life, and when that life is spent working for peanuts it can look pretty dreary. A sort of dreariness that I am glad that I can be unself-absorbed enough to notice, but not enough to make me want to spend a lot of time there... even if that time would be in the studio.

Thanks Diane

Just wanted to let my readership know that the moderator of the Art Quilt ring, Diane, kindly read my post about being bumped from the list, and wrote to me about it. She filled me in on my criteria for reinstatement, and I wrote back that I wasn't sure that I was going to qualify any time soon.

Not that I can't post twice a week - easy, even now, with 4.5 month old twins. I'm just not sure that I want to limit my creative work to art quilting right now, especially since that is just so multitasking heavy, and the last thing my sleep-deprived down-time needs to be is *demanding*!

So, I may be back in a month or two, or it might be longer. I WILL get back to art quilting, but I think that I am going to enjoy my foray into other forms for a while first. I have all those projects listed below to be working on, and other ideas too - rustic furniture making (probably dreams only), *actually* getting my house and yard ready for sale (Partners in Clean, where are you!?!?), finding a new home to move into and helping my parents get a potential new property up to snuff (which might be all the same thing!), and, obviously, taking care of my girls and taking care of myself. Fitting myself back into the AQ box seems counterproductive, not to mention overly difficult right now, so I'm not going to do it. Period. What you see is what you get! Right now though, what I've got is a little girl asleep against my rhymically typing left arm. I should get her off to her crib...

shows what *I* know and block printing

I guess I do have readers - they just can't all post comments to my blog. I don't know why, and I'll try to figure that out when I've had a little bit more sleep.

Right now though, I am contemplating the uses of block printing in art quilts. I have an itch to try carving some, and want to put them to use asap, so...

I thought about making a sort of diaper pattern (all-over texture, not the nappy sort), or doing a large piece and make it a whole cloth quilt. I have even thought of printing part of the design on one side, and a complementary part on the other side of the quilt sandwich, and then quilting both designs, so that the pattern becomes complete only though the quilting stitches themselves. Then that begs for a translucent batting so that the whole pattern can be viewed at one time, and...

Well, you can see the sorts of things my brain dreams up during the 4 AM feeding!

Anyone have any brilliant ideas on what I can do, art-quilt-wise, with three rolls of tin foil?

Things I'm working on

Shoulds: (self-imposed, so they are ok)

* finish baby quilt for Erica's son, Jacob Jules
* sew labels on back of Jesse's and Genna's quilts so I can get them delivered
* finish Tra's girls' quilts (one in progress, other unstarted! Yikes!)
* CLEAN OUT MY STUDIO!!!
* finish postcards for year-old exchange (better late than never, I hope)
* send thank-you's for all the lovely things my girls have been given
* finish quilting the Magic Bus quilt from the Straight and Narrow challenge (languishing on the design wall at present)
* line up contractors for garden recovery and ceiling repairs
* get out invites to girls' baptism

Want to's:

* try block printing
* dyeing/painting some yardage
* order print paste from Pro-Chem
* order RTD clothes from Dharma
* play with batik more
* find some fun FICTION to read before the summer vanishes
* play the Civ 4 warlords expansion DH got me, and Sim City 4 that cousin George lent me

Have done recently's:

* screen-printed hand and footprint Father's Day shirts for my husband and Dad
* pastel drawing for card for my Aunt for her birthday
* continuing to document babies on digital camera
* enjoyed stargazing and other simple pleasures in Heath, Mass with family
* sewed boutique overalls for friend Barbara's daughter Ellie (princesses galore!)

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Not too bad, and not so good, but doable. Get cracking, and have fun!
Life is what I make it!!!!

Frustration and Paradigm Shift

I know that I haven't been posting much. Twins and Fibromyalgia are most of the reason, but lack of readership is another. It is very depressing to spend lots of time posting things, knowing that no one will be reading it! Why won't anyone be reading it? Because I was bumped from the list for not posting in over a month back in June. I wrote to the moderator of the ring and requested that I be placed back on the ring, but never got a response. Having just checked the ring, I see that several folks were added to the ring July 8, and another on July 30, so obviously the mod is looking at blogs and mine just didn't stack up. No wonder, since I haven't been posting into the void!

So I am in need of a paradigm shift: I WAS posting becuase I liked being part of the ring community. I miss that aspect of blogging *very* much, especially since it got me both into the studio and through my pregnancy; the support therein was amazing. Now though, I am out here on my own, hoping to meet the mod's standards so I can be allowed back into the group, and I don't like the feeling this evokes in me.

Therefore, although I would love to be allowed back into the group, I need to blog for a different reason in order to actually ENJOY my blogging - I need to make blogging for my audience of one an OK thing. I need to make it fun for ME.

So - I'm going to worry less about what others think about what I am posting - less about general interest, and more about my life and art. I *am* working on art around taking care of my girls (4 months old now) and feeling wretched, and I'm going to write - to MYSELF - about all of it. I learned years ago that I only journal when my relationship with my partner is bad. As a result, I have not journalled since my husband and I got together just over two years ago. So, while keeping the private details private in this online world, I am going to attempt to at least document my artistic life here, and try to do so in a way that fosters personal reflection on my work and my quandries about it.

Sound good? I hope so! Besides, it only needs to sound good to me. Any readers that eventually find their ways here can like it or lump it! Bon voyage, Susan!