LAFTA Project

Every few years, LAFTA (Louisville Area Fiber and Textile Artists) members work together to develop a piece of art that is then donated to a local non-profit organization.  These non-profits have included The Home of the Innocents, Bernheim Arboretum and Research Forest, Brown Cancer Center and Family and Children First.  

This year, LAFTA is doing another collaborative project for Jefferson Alcohol and Drug Abuse Center (JADAC). Information about JADAC is available at their website www.jadac.org. LAFTA members who chose to participate agreed to create a piece of fiber or textile art that inspires those individuals seeking help from JADAC as well as their families. Participating members made a single piece using an 11" X 14" pre-stretched canvas. These individual pieces will be hung in groups in one or more locations at JADAC where clients and family gather. (Some members chose to do more than one piece.) 

This is the piece I did; it is called Lift Off. When I made the piece, I thought about the darkness surrounding addiction--the stresses and pressures of every day life weighing heavy upon the soul. Many times the despair becomes deep enough that parts of the soul can break away--sometimes for protection. Through training for a battered women's crisis line, I learned that sometimes people in crisis feel that the known (no matter how bad it is) is better than the unknown. Here, the central character has chosen to "fly" into the unknown. The decision has finally been made to reach out for help, for life, and for the parts of the soul that were lost to addiction. I tried to portray a feeling of weightlessness--the discarding of all the "heavy" things that were hampering the recovery of this person's true essence.

As you can see, this piece is heavily hand quilted. The background and bottom-right-hand block are made from some of my snow-dyed fabric, the central character is made from fabric on which I tried sugar syrup resist, and the sun is made of hand-dyed fabric with a flour paste resist. FINALLY, I have used some of my surface design fabric from my projects on the And Then We Set It On Fire Blog!