Description
About this piece:
I was inspired by memories of my mom’s mending basket, the popularity of visible mending, and a quote by environmentalist Aldo Leopold: “The 1st rule of intelligent tinkering is to save all the pieces”. This textile rolled up artist’s book holds images reproduced from my sketchbooks and is meant to remind us of mother earth’s healing needs. The book unrolls from the basket, and pages are buttoned together (inspired by Ode à l’Oubli by Louise Bourgeois). The image on each page is cut into fragments; these stitched and patched images relate to our loss of intact ecosystems. Nature’s web of life works best when all the parts are present and working together in harmony.
Imagery is scanned and printed watercolor sketches I have done on location over the years. Some of these actual places have been preserved; some have been altered by humans. After printing the paintings on muslin, I cut them to pieces – like humans have broken some of our beautiful places into fragments with roads and other developments. The text on outside of the mending basket is from the poem Holding the Light by Stuart Kestenbaum, used with permission: “In our imperfect world we are meant to repair and stitch together what beauty there is.”
Materials:
textile, thread, buttons, raffia
About the artist:
Lives and works in Albuquerque, New Mexico
Margy O’Brien fills sketchbooks with the soul of an artist and the eye of a naturalist; these initial plein air explorations fuel her studio work where she primarily creates mixed media one of a kind artist’s books. She utilizes watercolor, drawing and original text with textiles and embroidery stitching.
Her art has been included in juried shows around the country and featured in Sketchbook Confidential, North Light Publications. Her artist’s books are included in 500 Handmade Books (Lark) and 1000 Artists’ Books (Quarry). She has also completed six public art works around Albuquerque.
