A Quilt For Baby Earth

A Quilt For Baby Earth    2022    handkerchief linen, small amounts of velvet and cotton, silk and cotton red threads, the backing is a linen damask table cloth, dyed with cochineal.  48 x 46.5 inches (122 x 118 cm) 

Hand embroidered with the poem, Planet Earth by Canadian poet PK Page.

Hand quilted.

Part of the Inside Out exhibition  March 3 - June 25 2023 at the Homer Watson House and Gallery in Kitchener Ontario 

It has to be loved the way a laundress loves her linens,

the way she moves her hands, caressing the fine muslins, 

knowing their warp and woof,

like a lover coaxing, or a mother praising,

It has to be loved as if it were embroidered 

with flowers and birds and two joined hearts upon it.

                        P.K. Page   (complete poem on website)

"Planet Earth" by PK Page (1993) is used with permission from the Estate of PK Page.

The Planet You're Standing On

The Planet You're Standing On

stitched paper, watercolour, silk thread, text written in pencil  30 x 24 inches  (76 x 60 cm)

The planet you're standing on looking out at the stars is the earth, the third planet from the sun and the mildest and softest of the nine.  Solid and rocky and heavy we think it is when actually it's as pale and lovely as a bubble.  It floats in nothing with all of us on it shining like a bubble.

excerpt from Only a Little Planet by Lawrence Collins 

Showed at Perivale Gallery, Spring Bay Manitoulin Island in 2022 and sold into private collection on the opening day.

Earth Dance

Earth Dance silk thread, watercolour paper, hand stitched  21" x 20.5"   (53 x 50 cm)  2022 (metal frame with glass)

for our imaginations and for our hearts

Premier showing at the Perivale Gallery, Manitoulin Island  in 2022  

Second showing is as part of Judy's Inside Out exhibition in spring of 2023, at the Homer Watson House in Kitchener.

Medicine Earth

Medicine Earth side b detail

Blanket weight wool, densely stitched with black wool thread, 

the ecological marks are outlined with red silk

Medicine Earth side a detail

Different weights of thread were used to make the straight stitches

different shades of black and dark green were used

the red thread is silk  

Medicine Earth   side a  186.6 cm x 185 cm or  73.5 x 73 inches   

Densely stitched wool cloth with a linen layer,  both linen and wool are eco printed.

Wool blanket and patchwork added to extend the size.  

Medicine Earth 186.6 cm x 185 cm or  73.5 x 73 inches    side b 

Hand stitched straight stitch using wool threads, with red silk thread around the ecological marks.

The deformed cotton string that was used to make the eco bundles is couched onto the surface of side b and outlined on side a. 

black and white cotton patches were applied to the edges.

black and white checkerboard textiles are an ancient form of protection

pieces of old blanket were added to the upper and lower edges to add weight and scale to the piece.

then they were stitched with wool thread

the artist used wool thread and her marks read as if an ancient code 

Medicine Earth side b as shown at In The Middle of the World at the Mississippi Valley Textile Museum 

Judy Martin and Penny Berens, curator Miranda Bouchard

The archetypal shapes of cross and circle are ancient and evoke a sense of ritual.

 2019 - 2021

Her Arms Wrapped Round, My Heart

My Heart, 22 x 10.5 x 14 inches, natural dyes on wool cloth over an armature made from broken willow branches and clover stalks, hand stitched, 2021

Her Arms Wrapped Round and My Heart, installation view, In The Middle Of The World, Mississippi Valley Textile Museum, Almonte, Ontario autumn 2021

Her Arms Wrapped Round, 30.5 x 9.5 x 8 inches, natural dyes on wool cloth wrapped around an armature made from broken willow branches and clover stalks, 2021

When my arms wrap you round I press

my heart upon the loveliness

that has long faded from the world.  W.B. Yeats  

They are each about the size and weight of a young child.  

Premier exhibition :  In The Middle of The World, Judy Martin and Penny Berens, curated by Miranda Bouchard, The Mississippi Valley Textile Museum, October 2 - December 18, 2021. 

Now in private collection. 

Stardust

 

Stardust  vintage doilies, most hand stitched by anonymous women applied to hand dyed linen and hand stitched with cotton thread, hand quilted   2021  100 inches high  x  55 inches wide  (254 x 139.7 cm)

Stardust detail   The doilies were all gifts.  These were the circle ones.

Stardust verso, procion dye on linen, hand stitched.  

Every atom in your body came from a star that exploded and the atoms in your left hand probably came from a different star than your right hand.  It really is the most poetic thing I know about physics.  

You are all stardust.                  Lawrence M Krauss

This piece has yet to be shown in public.

Underfoot The Earth Divine

Underfoot The Earth Divine 

rescued damask, tannin and iron natural dyes, velvet, paint, machine pieced, reverse applique,         hand quilted with a variety of threads (cotton, silk, wool)     89" x 89" or 226 cm square

About appreciating the expansiveness of the natural world,

And the simplicity of it.

Overhead the Sun (verso)  

About the divine within nature and within us

And the intimacy of touch.

This then is life,  Here is what has come to the surface after so many throes and convulsions.           How curious!  How real!  Underfoot the divine soil, overhead the sun.            Walt Whitman