Inspired by Archetypes: Work from the 2022 Creative Strength Training Members

Inspired by Archetypes Creative Strength Training Members 2022

Exhibition Artists

Adriana "Gigi" Mederos 04

Alison Bainbridge 06

An Marshall 08

Anna Gordy 10

Barbara Cardinal Sorge 12

Barbara Corso Ide 14

Brigitte Red 16

Carla White 18

Carol LaBorie 20

Carole Pollard 22

Cassy L LaVigne 24

Christine Barker 26

Denise Osso 28

Diane Clapes 30

Dianne Cutler 32

Eleanor Zimmer 34

Elizabeth Salvia 36

Ellen Baranowski 38

Esther Collins 40

Ginger Erickson-Johnsen 42

Gini Ewers 44

Jackie Manley 46

Jacquelyn Jacobi 48

Janis Updike Walker 50

Jann Glisson 52

Jeanette Floyd 54

Joyce Martelli 56

Karen Colett Frank 58

Karen McCann 60

Karen S Riggins 62

Kathleen Farnsworth 64

Kathleen Shelton Williams 66

Kerstin Engström 68

Kristin Rohr 70

Linda Dawson 72

Linda Geiger 74

Linda Nelson-Johnson 76

Lindsay Webster 78

Lisa Check 80

Louise Roby 82

Lucy Snyder 84

Lyn Bainbridge 86

Lynda Wingrove 88

Lynne Lee 90

Margaret "Meg" Filiatrault 92

Mary Mason Banks 94

Nan Travers 96

Noelle Evans 98

Norrie MacIlraith 100

Paula Dean 102

Paula Straw 104

Sarah Mayo 106

Sharla Jean Hoskin 108

Sheryl Miller 110

Sonja Campbell 112

Sonja Lee-Austin 114

Sue Buckingham 116

Susan Goldie 118

Susan Smith 120

Theresa Ely 122

Trish Hanna 124

Vicki Finchum 126

Zet Baer 128

Zoie Holzknecht 130

Al Bates Lombard 134

Carol Chewning 136

Dixie Walker 138 Ileana Soto 140

Jennie Harris 142

Jill Littlewood 144

Jo Thomas 146

JoAnne Hoffman 148

Kathleen Garrant 150

Lisa Heller 152

Lisa Jenni 154

Marilyn Pitman Waite 156

Marty Wolins 158 Nancy Tully 160

Words from Jane

Archetypes are universal patterns of behavior that all human beings share. We recognize archetypes in other people, and in ourselves, when we refer to someone as a princess, a knight in shining armor, a gambler, or an earth mother. There are hundreds of archetypal patterns and they are evolving as human beings evolve.

Artists are inspired by archetypes in two ways. First, an artist may work with an archetype as a subject of the artwork created. Writers and filmmakers use archetypal patterns when they develop characters for stories and films. Artists craft visual stories by using archetypes as their subjects or theme. You will find many examples of this approach to using archetypes as symbolic content in the pieces featured in this exhibition.

Artists also use archetypes from a personal perspective to explore the psychological dynamics of creating and the creative process. In this exhibit you will see that many artists reference The Child as being present when work is going well. Learning to recognize and confront The Saboteur is another example of working with archetypal energy in order to take work to a deeper and more meaningful level. Recognizing a love of many techniques and materials reflects a deep-seated Dilettante – just waiting to be embraced. A joy and not a liability.

It’s been proposed that each of us has a set of twelve personal archetypes. As you peruse the pieces shared here, I invite you to notice the work that touches you and pulls you in. It might be a sign that the archetype is active in you – and wouldn’t that be a neat discovery?

The world is a big and potentially overwhelming place. Working with archetypes offers the opportunity to ground, center, and know who you really are. I congratulate each of the artists exhibiting here because they have risen to that sacred challenge.

Adriana "Gigi" Mederos

This year I am compulsively creating thousands of smaller pieces. A fantastic menagerie of capricious organisms is growing daily. They hope to be part of something bigger - a Folk Rococo madness is coming to life in my studio.

La Colgante hangs up-side-down by a silver rope tied to her ankle. Stoic in her peculiar position, she surrenders to the eternal pendulum. In the picture, her presenting side shows a serene face; a quantum burst of positive energy radiating from her belly. The other side shows La Colgante desperate, painfully exposed, guts al fresco. I drew her on a repurposed watercolor paper and bonded her, 4-ply, before painting, collaging, giving her a name and assembling her habitat.

The tree where she hangs is shaped like a T. The vertical bar represents life in the physical world manifested in the multitude of colors and shapes.The shallow basin that supports the structure is a reclaimed serving dish turned into the depths of the ocean. The innerscape quickly traverses up the tree trunk, teeming with abstracted versions of life in those places where earth and water meet. Up in the Canopy, where earth

and sky kiss, a ghostly chameleon serves as messenger. Birds, orbs, and other celestial dwellers dangle and sway. La Colgante lives in Nepantla, the liminal. Above the top bar of the T, is the spiritual sphere. Over the tree is a simple water vessel; above it a stylized white bird flies protectively.

The acts of drawing and painting, kneading, molding, and folding, cutting and stitching, bring to me memories of family, folklore, tradition and beliefs. In turn, these memories invite me to reflect on love, mortality, forgiveness, belonging, identity and the quality of my relationships with those I love. The ones who have already crossed to the dimension of stardust – mis muertos- are particularly present while working on La Colgante.

La Colgante feels like a new pivot point for me and my work. Symbiosis, and the natural relationships between micro and macro worlds are integral parts of my artistic investigation. Working with archetypes expands it to the realm of inner and outer life. La Colgante beckons me to find creative equilibrium with this new series, assembling layered sculptures.

My Magical Child forms the foundation for all my archetypes. It was a surprise to me that I had such a strong Magical Child as I had always focused on the shadow side of my Wounded/Abandoned Child. The more I reflected on the idea of my creativity and entered into discussion with myself, the CST community, and Jane, the clearer it became that she was present whenever clarity, joy and love were needed, whether in my art or in my life. My Magical Child lives in the light and always helps me find my next step. She makes me brave enough to seek an answer, to find what will work, what can be done and how to find her joy. Even when it can feel like no more than a droplet of joy, she will always share it with me. She is also helping to heal my Wounded/Abandoned child, which has been so badly needed.

The inspiration for her came, initially, from an image on the cover of one of my favourite albums. I asked the photographer of the original image if he would allow me to base my piece on his photograph. He graciously gave me permission. I wanted a child of colours and light, her hands upturned to the Universe, open and receptive to the magic that unfolds in my artist practice. A butterfly came strongly as the form she would take, symbolizing for me transformation, freedom and inspiration.

I used metallics to convey the light in simple lines of stitches allowing the image/face to focus what I saw when I thought of my Magical Child. The spirals above her represent the light and ideas she brings to me.

An Marshall

My Canyon Guide is the one who follows her inner knowings – escorting others through space and time, to create dreams and explore inspiration. She seeks the light over the deep channel etched from eons of years by ancient influences.

Photo attribute: F.A. Rinehart, 1899, “Omaha Dance Bonnet & Scalp Lock”.

Anna Gordy

The Wounded Healer guides this piece. She reminds us that the imperfections and scars from life in this embodied plane do not inhibit the beauty, wisdom, and curative nature of the soul. The shadows that play across the inside of the form add to its interest and change with the light. And we remember the poet Leonard Cohen’s words, “There’s a crack in everything. That’s how the light gets in.”

As I entered my third year of CST and was fortunate enough to meet several members at the July Oklahoma event, I felt a cohesive experience evolving. I am drawn to the Child archetype, keeping eyes wide open without pre-conceptions. Intuition powers my creativity and loosens the rules. The rabbit is my symbol of the innocent and bouncing ideas which follow zigzagging courses to new directions. In this piece I let multicolored dyes create a bright background and then removed color to create happy circles and the figurative image of the rabbit (child). I hand stitched around each circle and then embellished the rabbit. As I stitched, the second smaller rabbit and the woman image inside the larger rabbit literally appeared and I let the needle and thread do their magic. The whole process was like a living birthing revelation. As a self taught artist I approach my creative process whether in clay, fiber, or other media, as an uncharted approach, relishing the personal learning experiences and growth of both success and failure.

Barbara Corso Ide

Perhaps my most dominant archetype is The Student, which is the subject of this collage. From the time I began watching my parents read, and continuing to this day, I have loved learning new things. My world literally opened up the day our World Book Encyclopedias arrived. It was the late 1950’s, and I was in third grade. My teacher, Sister Fabian, was very open to my big idea – sharing my new knowledge in the form of “Reports to the Class.” I took my job very seriously and soon stood in front of the class reading a perfectly copied paragraph about Abraham Lincoln from one of the new volumes. This was quickly followed with another report highlighting George Washington. I have always believed that my teacher, who I’m sure had many decades of experience, recognized that I just might have the makings of a teacher myself. From that early experience of digging around about a topic of interest, I did indeed pursue a career in front of students, a career spanning 42 years, three degrees and multiple certifications including administration.

My ten favorite years of teaching were spent guiding elementary students through independent study projects based on what they wanted to learn. During those years, reference materials transformed from books, vertical files, and encyclopedias to the age of computers and the internet. A new era of research and learning was just fingertips away!

Art quilts became a major area of interest after I retired. In 2016 I began a serious inquiry into the elements of art and how to translate ideas/images onto fabric. The exploration of surface design led to the discovery of digital photography collage using a variety of software editing programs and iPad applications. Sitting On Top of the World is a product of this collage method. The background is a combination of two different pictures: one is a scanned image of different pages from antique textbooks, while the other is an image of a section of outdoor carpeting. The World Book is a public domain image, which was isolated and digitally layered onto the background. The seated gentleman with the book is a cropped image of a sculpture that is located on the grounds of the Elk Rapids, MI. library. The little girl sitting with him is a picture of me taken from a family photo featuring my father reading a Christmas story to his three children. And the confident little girl on the left is another cropped family photo of me sitting on the curb with my cousin.

To create the image, I used Picmonkey, Photoshop Elements, Mac Preview photo editor and resizing tool, BeCasso, and Juxtaposer. Commercially Printed by Spoonflower.

Brigitte Red

Ibegan my journey in textile art on retirement. My curiosity, exploration and experimentation led to self study and various workshops. One such workshop was Creative Strength Training with Jane Dunnewold.  It was during this study of archetypal patterns and how those patterns impact creativity that I discovered the creative potential within me.

This exhibit, related to archetypal patterns, is the vehicle I have used to express both the light and shadow side of my Dilettante. I acknowledge that I have a very strong Dilettante archetype. The shadow side can sometimes cause me to lose focus; to get lost in the decision of which process will best suit a creative dilemma I am facing. My love of experimenting, trying new techniques, collecting, and enjoying discovery are

hallmarks of the light side of my Dilettante. The light side allows me to call upon specific techniques I have learned to solve creative challenges as they arise.

This piece, Embracing My Dilettante, portrays the light side. Here I have constructed my artwork to showcase the various textile construction and embellishing techniques that I have collected, including Celtic knot-work, beading, patchwork, Seminole piecing, fabric folding, embroidery, pin tucks, weaving, raw edge appliqué and curved piecing. The central mask motif portrays both the dark and light side of my Dilettante. The mixture of bright cheerful colours and dark sombre ones are a reminder that my Dilettante, whether light or shadow, is always waiting in the wings, ready to come to the party.

Carla White

All through my life the Nature Child archetype has always been there for me. Whether from playing in the woods as a child; collecting butterflies, feathers, and rocks; hiking in the mountains and woods; birding and the love of bird song; to photography and art quilting of all things natural.

My Winding Pathway is a curved ladder representing the path of my life. The ferns, birds and mushrooms represent parts of nature that I love. They are all entwined around the curving ladder and my life, as are the strips of fabric wound

around the ladder. To me they represent eternal youth, new life, freedom, and joy.

My Winding Pathway is a three-dimensional fabric and wire sculpture where the ferns, small birds and ladder are re-positionable. The ferns were made from templates of ferns growing in my garden. The puffball mushrooms are simply stuffed fabric circles, and the larger mushrooms are stuffed figures made with wire and foam board. I found the perfect birds in my stash which were purchased several years ago.

Carol LaBorie

My first work of art as a toddler was a bright red lipstick drawing on my mother’s white chenille bedspread. Throughout my life I have explored drawing, painting, embroidery, collage, sewing, fiber arts, quilting, photography, bookbinding, surface design, botanical printing, and felting. The Dilettante archetype is alive and well in me as I continue to explore new processes in my creative practice. The hummingbird embodies the light side of the Dilettante as she flits from flower to flower, tasting the sweet nectar for the sheer joy of it. That is me, delighting in color and texture as I explore the variety of materials that I work with.

As I approach the next decade of my life, I can see that the common thread in my work is textiles and fiber. My current art practice is focused on moving beyond the limitations of two-dimensional work. Most recently I have enjoyed experimenting with the Korean paper felting process known as Joomchi. What intrigues me about Joomchi is the textural and sculptural possibilities, as well as the fact that the outcome is often a surprise.

Carole Pollard

Ideas excite me. Beauty inspires me.

Iwanted to be an artist from childhood, but made my living teaching English. I retired to get serious about making art and chose designing and making art quilts to express that intention.

Several previous quilts have been inspired by literature. To Walk in My Integrity is the first and probably the only piece that integrates words-ideas from literature-with images. Both have deeply personal meaning in this quilt, which is a psychological self-portrait.

Twelve archetypes. I could have made twelve quilts, but the archetypes are not separated from each other. They are all contained and interlinked within me and work together in dynamic and sometimes startling or even disturbing ways. They had to be integrated into a single quilt to suggest those relationships.

Accordingly, elements of the archetypes reach into the “chambers” of adjacent ones.

The quotes in each chamber define the role of that archetype for me. The four very large gold rays seem to be a thirteenth archetype, but they actually carry an overarching profound inspiration which has been part of my life since I discovered it in a high school English class:

Bring me my bow of burning gold, Bring me my arrows of desire, Bring me my spear. Oh clouds, unfold. Bring me me my chariot of fire!

Those four lines from William Blake capture my desire to be and to do something more and higher. Those lines have lifted me my whole life.

Cassy L LaVigne

Iam a fiber artist and quilt-maker who enjoys creating with a variety of materials and techniques. As a child of the 1950s, a treasured Christmas gift was the wooden Playskool Sewing Box, filled with fun items for a little girl to play with. There were buttons, beads, spools, and a needle all made from wood, as well as bright colored yarn to “sew” with. This is still one of my cherished possessions. It reminds me to be grateful for the wonderful opportunities and abundant supplies that I have been gifted.

The Dilettante archetype and I have a close bond. I am totally engaged with her delightful light side. She is my joyful companion traveling with me along a swirling path that nurtures my creative soul. My Dilettante tells me to play, explore, experiment, try this, explore that, then maybe this other new thing. Like a hummingbird, all that gathering of

nourishment provides me with skills and energy to meet up with my Artist self after all that fun. It then becomes my intent to tap into Source of Mystery where the creative process intuitively unfolds and a piece takes form.

This piece did not start with a plan. It began with wanting to try free-form pieced letters. Then the letters became a word. I liked the way the letters faded into the background so added more fabric to the bottom of the piece. It was on my design wall for weeks before deciding to include the five hummingbirds stitched from K. Howell’s hand embroidery designs. My choice of thread color lets them be a subtle surprise when spotted by the viewer. My best, soul satisfying art pieces are the ones that cause my heart to flutter and make my voice quiver when speaking. Joy Absolute does just that.

Christine Barker

From years of singing, I have countless fragments of songs that pop into my head, and as often as not, define perceptions I’ve been trying to figure out. The most recent one:

“These must be the bones of a fallen angel… They’re in pieces and parts….”

This song Pieces and Parts by Laurie Anderson seemed a good description of how I was thinking about my archetypes. I also have random thoughts that get written in my journal like:

archetypes–architexture…(sp. Ha…) archetypes are the structure of our persons, the texture of us…

So I summarized. My series might be a kind of structure, a piece or part of me that I’ve ‘figured ‘ out.

This led me to my bookshelf and a favourite book of sculptures by Emily Young. She has done some amazing sculpturessome she calls angel heads and others are torsos, all done in exquisite stone. Sculpture makes me want to touch it. Fabric does the same.

After using a carved shell my daughter brought me from the Marquesas Islands – for Kristin Freeman’s colour analysis challenge in our Embroidery Enthusiasts group – I had a palette of soft tones that were both from the shell, but also from a polished stone, and I had the same colours in fabric and threads.

Inspired by Young’s torsos, I drew, collaged, stitched, and used trapunto to make my fabric torso. Shades of Neutral will likely lead my future collection of archetype torsos.

Denise Osso

QueenMother is a hand-built clay figure that represents two archetypes, The Queen and The Mother. It was inspired by a drawing my daughter made when she was somewhere between 7-9 years old. I liked the woman in the drawing – her regal attitude, her smiling fish eyes and the grounded power of her dress. As mothers do, I put it in a frame. It sat on the bookcase in my writing room and I looked at it for decades. I never realized that the woman in the drawing was me until my daughter told me so, surprised that I did not see what was so very obvious to her.

While I cannot capture the unguarded innocence of my child’s drawing, I tried to stay true to her vision. I built the figure from the ground up, slowly and carefully joining the coils of red clay, in order to

make a three-dimensional garment that could both literally stand on its own and withstand the heat of the kiln. That could hold the dark side of power and incorporate the inevitable loss that comes with the gift of parenting. I inscribed the clay with a language of marks which I cannot read but somehow know by heart. I topped the QueenMother’s garment with a two-dimensional image of her face and head, which wears the crown and sits lightly on her shoulders, a balancing act if there ever was one.

How could I not know I was The Queen? How does one who is born to rule learn to live with the empathy that The Mother teaches? Maybe if I look at QueenMother for the next decade I will understand. Maybe. And maybe I should just ask my daughter.

Diane Clapes

In January, Jane led a White Stone Ceremony via Zoom. It was a moving, emotional, and inspirational meeting. The significance of the white stone had its beginnings during Roman times and is mentioned in the Bible in the book of Revelation. The stone can symbolize new beginnings, freedom from bondage, and friendship among other things. Each community member in our White Stone Ceremony was asked to consider and meditate or pray on a word that would be significant to her in the year 2022. This word would be written on a stone.

I listened carefully as 40 women revealed their words and shared their desires for the new year. I was surprised and delighted that each word chosen by someone else had relevance and meaning for me. Hearing the emotion and sentiment in the voices of the other participants was compelling.

In my piece, Intentions, the cherished words declared by the participants are

written in gold paint highlighted with gold leaf to symbolize their sacredness. The color blue was chosen because it symbolizes peace, stability, tranquility, and trust. I chose green for its meaning of good luck, generosity, and renewal.

The background is hand-dyed fabric. Commercial, painted, and re-purposed fabrics are used for the “blocks.” They are hand stitched to the background and all parts are heavily frayed to evoke a feeling of rawness, incompleteness, and imperfection.

My Seeker archetype challenges, encourages, and motivates me to search for my best self - my highest intentions in my creative journey and in all aspects of my life. My Seeker was deeply affected by the ceremony and this piece of art reflects how I felt while taking part in the 2022 White Stone Ceremony

Ihave not been well for quite some time. Now that I know, I can see the progression over the last 13 years. Multiple doctor visits with multiple testing revealed nothing more or less about me, but I was circling the drain. Everyone was telling me there was nothing wrong with me, but I felt like I was going to die. Feeling defeated and scared, I begged a naturopathic doctor, who didn’t want to take on any more clients, to take me on as a patient. Her testing revealed an unexpected diagnosis: Lyme Disease with multiple tick-borne infections. My initial reaction was relief. I finally had a diagnosis, but it wasn’t long before I moved into fear. How do I heal myself? I have a chronic disease that the CDC, the AMA, and the insurance companies don’t recognize. It was clear to me the scope of my illness was way out of my MD’s wheelhouse. Thus, began my journey down the rabbit hole of Lyme

and co-infections. I have scoured the books, listened to the podcasts, signed up for webinars, and reached out to anyone that has contacts with other Lyme Warriors to glean as much information as I can so I can put the pieces of myself back together. I have spent thousands of dollars seeking answers and treating myself with herbs, pharmaceuticals, nutraceuticals, and bodywork. “Lyme and Friends” has completely derailed my life. I have been forced to be the heroine in my own journey back to wellness. It’s not all bad, though. Some of these changes were necessary. There was much to be discarded internally and externally. I am in a better place now, but the fear still creeps back in on the days I don’t feel so good. I am now in active pursuit of seeking joy and eliminating all the things that do not point in that direction. I am confident my Heroine will lead the way.

The Heroine’s Journey: Dark Places 2022 20” x 20” Plaster 995. diannecutler@me.com www.diannecutler.com

I’m expressing the Child’s side of my personality in this piece of art. The child in me is endlessly curious and loves to play and test a lot of ideas. The Gelli Plate gave me that opportunity through color and the use of a multitude of tools including stamps, stencils, and rubbings. I also used torn paper and newsprint on print paper with acrylics.

Elizabeth Salvia

Iam in my second year of Creative Strength Training. This year, I have been learning to befriend my Archetypes, to acknowledge and defuse their shadow aspects, and to call upon their positive attributes. I have especially focused on strengthening my self-esteem and my faith in myself, by digging deep into the Prostitute and Victim archetypes. For this show I created a small artwork that celebrates that exploration. I also invited a few more of my archetypes to the party.

I began by inviting my Seeker to choose a symbol. This little Yellow-Rumped Audubon’s Warbler represents hope, renewal, and determined persistence. To create Lovestruck Romeo, I first sketched my own drawing.

I recently took a wonderful class from artist Jill Kerttula, who introduced me to some fascinating techniques involving layering, cutting into, and appliquéing fabrics. After her class, I wanted to try and see if I could use some of those techniques in my own art process.

I called on my Engineer to plan the actual construction. My Engineer figured out the best order in which to build this piece, from layering, through stitching, cutting away, appliqué, trapunto, and embellishment. Sometimes my Engineer wakes me in the night to work on this stuff.

Once this was done, I loosed my Hedonist on three crates of fabric scrap I have collected over several decades. I have snippets from clothing my mother made, bits and pieces friends have saved for me, and so many scraps from jobs I’ve held - leftovers from a clothing designer, samples from a fabric warehouse, discards from theatre costume work. Lovely beautiful fabrics - lamé, brocades, jacquards, velvets, cottons, silks, linens, and synthetics. Some pieces are no larger than the palm of my hand. My Hedonist knows them all.

Once the fabrics were chosen, layered and stitched, and I was ready to begin cutting away fabric, I got a surprise. My Seeker stepped up again, eager to excavate, and to discover how the exposed separate layers suddenly began to speak to each other and work together.

Throughout the process of making and finishing this artwork, my Artist archetype was there, orchestrating and conducting.

My archetypes are becoming a personal posse I can call on at all times. In my life, as in my art practice, my archetypes are collaborating to create a unique and wonderful whole.

Lovestruck Romeo 2022 11.5” x 16” Art Quilt 380. beth@elizabethsalvia.com elizabethsalvia.com

Ellen Baranowski

Moving all my life has enabled me to meet so many different people, and learn to be “ all things to all people” – as the Apostle Paul counseled.

The Shapeshifter archetype is represented in this piece as it has shifted three times.

Beginning as a botanical print that printed lightly, I added flour paste crackle over the botanicals. The paint flowed a bit bigger than I anticipated, and thus the silk flowers bloomed, rising up in joy. Loving the effect of the flowers, I added the sashiko stitching and the stamped linen napkin behind the main body. When hung for display, the napkin will float and change as the piece is passed – shifting in the wind, and adjusting to the current of the air – as I have.

Shapeshifting in Life

2022

15” x 15”

Linen, embroidered and Sashiko stitched with silk thread NFS

ellen.baranowski@gmail.com

One archetype I have paid particular attention to this year is the Saboteur. As the art focus of the group has been abstraction, I decided to set myself the task of creating a symbolic/abstract embroidery of how I personally visualize my Saboteur. I set limitations such as the number of colours, the circular shape, and that the stitch design had to be meaningful.

In the centre is a dot, which in mandalas typically represents the self. Contained within the circle is a finely balanced design, with the pressure of sabotaging thoughts and behaviors being held at bay by my four mantras; ways of keeping the Saboteur in check. Although I don’t often use words in my work, I felt they served as a powerful summary of this archetype. I now keep this on my desk, as a reminder of what I need to do.

estherjcollins@yahoo.co.uk www.esthercollins.co.uk #esthercollins5679

Ginger Erickson-Johnsen

Starting in 2013, after closing my business as a textile manufacturer, I happily found textile surface design through various classes taught by Jane Dunnewold. I am at home with fabrics. I absorb all things Jane Dunnewold teaches either through her books, on-line education, and her YouTube channel. It is through her class, Creative Strength Training, that I was introduced to archetypes. Storms Never Last was inspired by the Wounded Child archetype.

In all aspects of my creative self, symbolism is where I find myself most comfortable. It is a natural fit.

In Storms Never Last, the tornado represents a child abandoned, abused, and neglected. When the tornado leaves our lives, (crosses the riverbank) our lives continue to be replaced with light and hope as found in the use of warm and cool colors.

Storms Never Last was created on cotton fabric with textile paints, Shiva oil paints and water.

Storms Never Last 2022 12.5” x 10” Mixed Media Art 600. ginger@thestitchncompanies.com

Gini Ewers

My maternal grandmother showed me unconditional love and personified kindness. And she taught me to sew and embroider. Our time spent together, surrounded by color, texture and pattern, fostered my love of textiles. I’ve been quilting for almost twenty years. My early quilts were traditional bed quilts made for specific people. Selecting just the right patterns, colors, fabrics and embellishments, to symbolize my relationship with the recipient, and to capture their special qualities, gave me great pleasure. In recent years, my exploration has been in the design and creation of art quilts.

I am drawn to combining complex machine pieced backgrounds, appliqué, hand stitching and machine quilting to tell a story. Recently, I have started to experiment with surface design techniques and printing on fabric to enhance the story.

As part of the Creative Strength Training community, I have been exploring archetypes as a means of better understanding myself, and in that

process I have come face-to-face with many of my fears, especially the fears that limit my creativity. The bars of the bird cage in Making the Decision — Taking the Risk are embroidered words reflecting my fears. “Fear of not being enough. Fear of hurting the people I love…” While I can write out those fears on paper pretty quickly, stitching them was a much slower process. That gave me time to consider whether that fear served me in any way, or whether I could let it go.

The door of the cage is open so there is a decision to be made. Will the blue bird stay inside or venture out? What is outside the cage that makes it worth the risk? The branch is a dogwood; one of the first flowers to bloom in the Spring and a symbol of hope. Quilted into the background in my own handwriting are the opportunities that exist outside the cage. “Opportunity to love and be loved freely. Opportunity to create with my unique voice.”

It is worth the risk.

Jackie Manley

My tree represents the spiritual practice of serving others. Branches reach out widely, and unseen roots support, protect, and nurture those giving arms through the force of the Divine.

Anointed: The Servant 2022 64” x 34” Art Quilt NFS mo.vient@outlook.com

Jacquelyn Jacobi

My first introduction to archetypes was with Jane Dunnewold in Creative Strength Training 2018. There was so much information to absorb and decipher. There was a hunt for your own archetypes; so many choices to investigate to find which ones fit who you thought you were. I found it bewildering, confusing and frustrating. Flummox represents those initial perplexing feelings swirling around. Fast forward to Creative Strength Training 2022, which was interactive, 2018 was not. I learned more, absorbed more and discovered my personal eight. Knowing myself better and understanding where some behavior originates helps me be kinder to myself, and be a better self.

Janis Updike Walker

As an only child, my world revolved around my magical grandmother. Using textiles carefully saved, she taught me embroidery. My fascination with fabrics grew with each passing year.

Retirement freed me to pursue training in art and refine my artist’s palette. Embroidery became my narrative. I now create hand-stitched fiber collage. I search for vintage fabrics, transforming cast-off scraps of velvet, silk, and lace into new designs. I hope to reinterpret needlework, not simply as women’s handiwork but as a time-honored creative expression. I aspire to elevate embroidery on the continuum from hobby to craft to art.

I look to several authors for inspiration. In Sacred Contracts, Carolyn Myss uses the language of archetypes to describe aspects of personality. In her book, Goddess in Every Woman, Jungian analyst, Jean Shinoda Bolen, interprets the ancient feminine form to describe the aspects of femininity. I developed a greater understanding of the profound influence these characteristics play in shaping my life. A four-year study of Creative Strength Training with Jane Dunnewold opened new paths of creative archetypal expression.

Myss identifies Goddess as one archetypal choice. The light attributes of Goddess inspire women, relying on her wisdom and sensuality for guidance. The shadow side of Goddess emerges if she exploits her feminine power. Myss says if I have Goddess as an archetype, my challenge is to review my associations with all aspects of being feminine.

Looking back over my lifetime, I claim Goddess as one of my strongest archetypes. In each decade, Goddess has worn many faces and assumed new roles. As a child, I borrowed aspects of Persephone. Entering adulthood, I relied upon Aphrodite as a woman and lover. When I became a mother, I assumed aspects of Demeter. In marriage I was Hera, the Wife and Queen partner. I called upon Athena, the warrior and craftswoman, in my professional life. In this chapter, I have ascended as Matriarch of my family. Now I rely upon Hestia, wise woman, keeper of the Hearth.

My hand-embroidered collage depicts Aphrodite, Goddess of creativity and good fortune. She embodies wisdom, grace, power and sensuality.

Jann Glisson

In a workshop earlier this year my Warrior image emerged from what at first seemed a failed piece and I wrote: “In my wildest creative dreams, I would never imagine being delighted with this outcome.” She responded: “Now it is for you to understand how far you’ve journeyed creatively.”

In the following months, she has been speaking from my design wall and I’ve listened; others in my trusted creative circle have offered encouragement to stretch beyond my usual literal interpretation, and this from Brené Brown: “Your armour is preventing you from growing into your gifts.’’

As I look over the notes I kept as I explored creating the piece for this exhibition, I can see the transition from literal to more figurative. I played with different approaches and became aware I didn’t need to shop for additional materials or ideas, they surrounded me in my studio. My Dad was a mighty warrior; gone way too early. I know he would wish me to shed my armour.

My Cloak of Courage and Confidence frequently needs mending; visible mending a/k/a Sashiko will enhance my cloak and allow it to age with grace. There is a hook on my studio wall where it will hang when not in use.

Jeanette Floyd

Iwas watching the video where Zenna was teaching about Neurographic Art, and I received such a calming feeling and wonderment when viewing the video. With everything I see that is artistic, I always wonder if I could do that with fabric? In this case, I immediately went looking for fabric and then realized it might be best to try this on fabric that can take dyes. I bought a full yard and just begin creating, like a whole cloth quilt.

To say this was absolutely freeing, and my creative mind just wandered, would be an understatement. I felt like a child in kindergarten, when you were able to just create without judgement. You could choose the colors and where the lines would go, or not. It was just creative play like a child.

When I completely colored the yard of fabric, I needed to figure out what to do with it. I had a quilt which needed to be repurposed and as I looked at the background fabric on the quilt it

reminded me of what they call the brain synapses connecting and disconnecting. It was perfect to compliment the artwork. Cutting the yardage up in pieces was like mini designs that created a whole. The whole art quilt has a very organic feel to it. Nothing precise or measured to be exact. Even the placement of each small panel is not straight. There was so much play and wonder with this, and it was very soothing and calming – no rules, no guidelines, no judgement – just PLAY!

I think all my life I have been an adult, even as a child, taking care of others or being responsible. Play for me has never been natural or easy to do even when I thought I needed permission to do so. As an adult, I now understand the value of play and hold it dearly as a precious child would a favorite toy. I would like to thank Zenna for putting herself out there to facilitate this art form on Youtube. I am one who is forever changed by it. I call my artistic playtime piece Neurographic “Fiber” Art.

Joyce Martelli

Iam an artist with a love of abstraction and boldness. Recently I have taken that love into creating 3-D forms. My focus has been dolls and the development of abstract faces. I try to incorporate items from nature and scraps to do my part in saving our natural resources. My latest work is inspired by studying archetypes and their representations in my life.

If The Forest Could Talk was created from wondering what stories the forest could tell. Imagine that three archetypes got together to communicate the past. In my piece (left to right) I have Diana (Nature Child, Goddess of the Forest), Misham

(Rescuer), and Scheherazade (Storyteller) at the edge of a forest discussing what they have seen. Diana and Scheherazade have so much to share that Misham needs the large hands to hold and rescue all the stories of the forest. The basket that contains them is made from scrap material. The dolls are created from pieces of driftwood, twigs, scraps of fabric, yarn, and my original faces. The ground cover includes rocks and moss.

I have found it rewarding to create in fiber and drawings what I cannot always express in words. May my creativity offer you a way toward understanding all that I feel!

Karen Colett Frank

Each year I spend mid-summer through the early fall in the rural, wooded region of Vermont’s Northeast Kingdom. My life there is quite different from the one I live in the sub-tropical city of St. Petersburg, Florida. Autumnal Dryad was clearly inspired by the Vermont autumn colors all around me.

Again this year, my intention had been to create a piece about my Nature Child archetype. I planned ahead, packed up the variety of materials that this would call for – lush, tropical, blues, greens –the sort of things not in my very limited Vermont stash. Finally ready to start, I was thwarted by a technical failure that prevented me from printing the key image of the piece.

Ahh, here is the Saboteur at work! It would only have required a small bit of time to have printed it before I left home. That was really only a minor bit of procrastination. I had been thinking about this piece for over a year, yet still hadn’t

started. The shadow Saboteur stayed in my company, until I was reminded that the Saboteur is about the power of choice. Time to move on. I have faith in my ability to develop an idea, following where it leads and trusting I will find a way to make it work. Friend Saboteur had invited Friend Prostitute to join in the process of making a new plan.

I would need work with the materials I had available to me. The unfolding fall influenced my ideas. The small blocks I pieced did not work as I had hoped, so they became a two sided frame, requiring a new idea to fill the newly created space. The process continued on this way until it was finished.

I continue to be amazed at fluidity of this creative process, the flow. I’ve always thought of it as a conversation between myself and artwork. It tells me where it wants to go and I respond. It has always worked best when I listen, rather than trying to force it into being something.

There is a trend towards “green” cremation for several reasons: ecologically, monetarily, spiritually, among other things. But it also means there may be fewer and fewer decorative statues erected in honor of the deceased.

My fear is that the beauty and serenity I find at cemeteries will become obsolete.

I am experiencing a pull to document this and how it’s important it to me - if only for my children and grandchildren.

I understand the cemetery will be with us for generations hopefully, but the understanding and religious significance may become lost to future generations, if they are not true believers in a higher power.

This piece is original photography blended with two other photos from my

local park to create a dream-like image and printed onto linen. Hand stitching gives a softness and humanness to the inanimate object. The viewer can experience some of the peace I get from finding these gems at my local cemetery.

I believe my Damsel has been guiding me in both my photography and how I chose to create this textile piece. I have matured into my own thinking (spiritually) and finally been able to abandon my childhood notions of who I need to follow or let lead me into my future. My Damsel has stood beside me through my experiences in adulthood to finally claim her rightful place as a free thinking, creative artist, who is carving her own path forward.

Karen S Riggins

Irecently discovered that I have an Engineer Archetype. I think that shows up in this Seahorse piece. The piece started with the thread painted Seahorse. I had to use the engineer side of my brain to figure out how to create the corals, sea anemones, jelly fish and seaweed, and then how to place each element.

Seahorse 2022 12” x 12” Mixed Media 250. ksrquilter@gmail.com

Kathleen Farnsworth

In the past, I had a love affair with batik fabric and had an extensive collection of curated pieces. I created functional art and paired them with my handmade ceramic buttons to create truly unique pieces. For 12 years I was successful at selling in local shops on the coast of Maine, and summertime was by far the busiest season. The artist in me was singing and people loved my stuff! After a while it was hard keeping up with demand. After all, I was a one woman show. I spent my days and nights producing and quickly found myself in a rut of making the same things over and over. I was making art for the masses, and not for myself. The thrill was fading, but I was making sales. Something had to give, as I was longing to slow down and spend more time designing. I was living in the shadow side of my Artist and the Prostitute was convincing me that I had to keep my nose to the grindstone and tough it out.

The winter brought contemplation. I researched workshops designed to grow as an artist. I found botanical printing and shibori fascinating. The more classes I took, the more excited I became about taking my work in a new direction, creating my own fabric using these methods. Could I allow myself to play with no particular result? The Saboteur

was rearing its ugly head and trying to convince me that I had no time to play. I had to produce! Pushing through this was my only way out. So I did. The light side of the Prostitute was showing me I could do this.

Cosmos on the Water is one of my most prized pieces. It represents faith in myself and the courage to step out of a very comfortable place to grow as an artist. Could I combine the two methods of shibori and botanical printing? The Engineer emerged to help, and the Prostitute showed me that I could do it.

I started with arashi shibori; wrapping fabric around a pole and compressing at one end before dipping in indigo dye. Next, Cosmos flowers were picked and placed randomly on top of the finished arashi piece and put into a heat press to transfer the images. Voila! It worked! I was amazed at what was possible while playing. My inner Child was delighted to see the Cosmos flowers dancing on the water!

My current work of shibori and botanical printing is forever expanding and I am seeing great sales once again. My confidence level has soared, and I feel free and comfortable in letting my Child play and create. I am making art for myself and feeling truly aligned as an artist.

Cosmos on the Water 2022 15” x 15”

Arashi Shibori & Botanical printing 225. sewinganotion@fairpoint.net www.sewinganotion.com

Kathleen Shelton Williams

Exploring the archetypes has helped me to understand why I approach my art differently than others. Identifying the Engineer as one of my eight has helped me understand my need to try to construct my work so that it is completed with minimal changes – no layer upon layer upon layer for me! I am not so rigid that I am disappointed when things do not seem to go the way I anticipate – that is when the Gambler takes over. Working with botanicals allows my Engineer and Gambler to work well together to form really interesting prints. The control required by the Engineer enables me to determine the initial composition and choice of materials. The Gambler takes over at other times to combine different processes to see what might happen.

Coreopsis 2022

8”x10.5” (16”x20” framed)

Botanical Print 275.

kathleensheltonwilliams@gmail.com kathleensheltonwilliams.com

Kerstin Engström

Nature has always been an important part of my life. I was born and live in Sweden. In Sweden we have opportunities to visit nature and forests regardless of where we live in the country.

The archetype Nature Child was evident when I started to choose my various archetypes.

My artwork The Clearing is inspired from my experiences as a Nature Child.

The artist-made book has covers made of wood from a tree in a forest near my home. The bark and the moss are still around the sliced branch, and it still has a faint scent from the forest. The small watercolor landscapes are inspired from places I visit often.

The title, The Clearing, comes from a special place in a forest – a clearing –where I had a secret place when I was a child. It was a place I visited when I was alone, and needed comfort from nature.

The title is also inspired by a poem, The Clearing, by the Swedish poet Tomas Tranströmer.

It is a poem about a place in a forest that only can be found by those who have gotten lost.

For me the the clearing is all the unexpected things that can happen when you are lost and don’t know what you are looking for.

It is not only related to places but also to things that happen in your life.

The love of books, words and letters has always been deep within me. In my profession, what I do for a living, as lawyer and judge, words have been my primary working tool.

My artistic path started with a mix of watercolor and calligraphy. To do this I needed sketchbooks and I started to make such books on my own. I took a course in bookbinding and loved the craft. I have studied traditional bookbinding for many years.

My aim is to combine my different skills in artisan books. I experiment with techniques, materials, form and contents. Sometimes something unexpected happens, such as this little book, inspired by the secret clearing from my childhood and my Nature Child.

Kristin Rohr

When I am drawing, is the Scientist or the Artist wielding the pencil? Whether it is a detailed map of a river’s fan delta or the delicate fan of a pansy’s petal, at heart it may ultimately be the Mystic worshipping, like a medieval scribe in the simple act of transcribing.

The Scientist and the Artist Compare Notes and Meet the Mystic 2022 Mixed Media 18”x 6” NFS kristinrohr.com

Linda Dawson

My archetypes work together, or alone, to bring meaning and voice to my artwork. When my Artist first saw the Dharma Chakra, also known as the Dharma Wheel, she knew she wanted to recreate it. She went to my Engineer and asked him if he would create the underpinning framework needed to create the drawing. Using his compass and straight edge he first divided the circle into six pieces to create the triskelion in the center. Then he divided the circle into eight pieces to create the spokes. The Artist then recreated them by hand and created all the decorative embellishing. My Engineer has a deep connect to

the Sixth Chakra and uses the third eye to find solution to problems. Thus, the significance of the eyes in the spokes. Some interpretations of the Dharma Chakra see the spokes as the path the chakras travel to reach the crown. I see this as the path my eight non-survival archetypes take in reaching the Crown, or enlightenment. My archetypes do not always maintain proper decorum and in the end my Saboteur had to step in and misspell Dharma as Darma. I considered redoing the wheel but thought better of it as this is what my archetypes do when left to go their own way!

My Child archetype is good at reminding me to create from a place of joy. One such place is a memory of a special family vacation.

My brother and I, at ages three and five, were awakened before dawn for a “surprise car ride.” Four hours later, a beautiful morning greeted us as we arrived at a tiny oceanside cottage that was to be our home for a full week! My father couldn’t resist taking a photo of his eager children, bathing suits on,

books and crayons keeping us occupied, waiting patiently on the small stoop with anticipation of the adventure to come.

Representing this favorite photo of mine in textiles, painting, and stitching has connected me not only to my inner child, but also to the feeling of the bliss and love I felt that day, when our parents treated us to a rare vacation at Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, which is still to this day our “happy place.”

Linda Nelson-Johnson

Raised as an Iowa farm girl, I have been an Artist/Creative since childhood. When I was about six years-old my mother taught me and my brother to embroider. The pieces weren’t wonderful or beautiful or finished, but it started me on my creative path through life. When I was 8 years-old, my mother began teaching me how to sew using the sewing machine. This started with doll clothing and quickly moved into sewing simple clothes for myself. In fact, most of the clothing I wore for the next 20 years I made myself – using and altering patterns.

I continued exploring sewing through two years of college and then motherhood - making clothes for myself and my children – often altering the patterns as I wished. After my two children were in

school, I went back to college and began studying interior design and eventually achieved a master’s degree. That lead to an interior design teaching position at Arizona State University for twenty-one years and later Washington State University for seven years.

When I retired, I moved back to my Iowa farmland. Now I find that I am incorporating past creative experiences and nature with newly found methods and adventures, many of which include cloth and sewing – my first two loves. However, I am always open to new methods of creating art. My new adventure is exploring printing possibilities with the heat press. This allows me to combine my early farm and outdoor experience with my knowledge of design.

Fearless Boy was created using images from the National Archives (open access) taken in Japan after the atomic bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The idea for this particular piece manifested as I was considering the impact of Covid19 on humankind. Whether in America, or on an island in the Pacific, or in the high mountains of Peru, every person on earth was – and still is – impacted in some way by the Covid19 epidemic, just as everyone on earth was – and still is – impacted by the WWII atomic attack on Japan.

These significant occurrences reverberate, and encircle the earth with the unknown. Presently, a super power, who has the largest nuclear weapon in the world – 2,000 times more powerful than

the Nagasaki bomb, is threatening to utilize nuclear weapons. Regrettably, haunting memories of the devastation, destruction, and death caused by WWII atomic bombs has faded from the memory of some.

Seeking justice, the light side of the Judge archetype beckoned me to visually represent humankind confronting the unthinkable, a nuclear war. The image of a Japanese child, still standing in Nagasaki the day after the bomb was dropped, reminds us of the injustice nuclear war imparts to every living being on earth. At the same time, Fearless Boy reminds us that even when confronting terrible injustices, and the unknown, we can find strength and embrace the future with courage.

Lisa Check

Heroine’s Journey

Round mind’s eye through heart and hands

Spiraling circling Then, now and coming: Splendor Be, Artisan, Be

My own Heroine’s Creative Journey started with simple childhood stitches on crewel work and my Girl Scout sash, to later expressing beauty through a photographic eye. I circled back to embrace stitching and dyeing of yarn and fabric. Just as in the Tree of Life, every skill, every path, produced a new growth ring. The fabric of the universe

opens through me like small points of mirrored light to guide my creativity. Each time I pick up my tools, the Sacred Spirit shows up to guide my head and heart and hands.

Heroine’s Creative Journey is an appliqued, pieced, and embellished textile. It is made with hand dyed cotton fabric, naturally dyed embroidery thread, and shisha mirrors. This printed digital collage image started with original and open-source photographs, manipulated in Procreate. An appliqued and embroidered tree was added along with a series of embellished mirrors and stitched moons.

Louise Roby

Ihave enjoyed getting to know my Child Archetype this year. They are a complex being that is at once me, yet somehow has their own persona. When I think of the Child, I think of gifts. The gifts of spontaneity, curiosity, innocence, adventure, openness, healing. I chose to do a necklace because I could combine randomly picked elements into a wearable art piece. I had no other specific plan. I played and dabbled with my bins and jars of gathered possibilities, found objects, and keepsakes. The teddy bear has been a favorite for years and became the main Child of the necklace. Its arms can clamp to be placed on a tree or book edge. I added a gift shaped earring to its arms to represent the gifts of the Child. The necklace continues to tell me why I chose the various elements. I bet I will be learning about my Child from this necklace for years to come.

Gifts of the Child

2022 20” Loop

Fabric, Telephone Wire, Safety Pins, Found objects, Keepsakes, Embroidery Floss NFS

Louise Roby

bobnouiz@hotmail.com

Lucy Snyder

As a fiber and mixed media artist, I remember being fascinated with beautiful fabrics and colors since the age of seven. Over the years I have worked with embroidery, quilting, clothing design and liturgical art and design, of soft furnishings for churches and other public spaces.

In recent years I have focused primarily on old and new process es, to manipulate or alter textiles in my art quilts. The content of my work comes from the natural world, specifically the oceans, but I am also involved with exploring photography and how it can be successfully incorporated into fiber art.

I am committed to producing mixed media art that is innovative and tells a story, while using commercial and hand painted fabric, colors that express a theme, and other non-fabric embellishments.

Take Two – Archetype Haiku 2022 13.5 x 34.5 Mixed Media on Fabric NFS davelucysnyder@gmail.com

Lyn Bainbridge

Areturn to painting has driven much of my creative work over the past two years as I have rediscovered the joy in the processes of my art. It has been liberating to focus, not on results, but on the sheer pleasure of paint and canvas and colour.

This diptych has been more than a year in gestation. Like many others in the CST community, I felt I had wrestled with the shadow Prostitute for a long time when my professional and family commitments seemed to be crushing my creative life. Challenges and changes in both areas were overwhelming art and the more I struggled to do the work I felt called to do, the tighter the constrictions wove around me. COVID gave me time to step back from these difficulties and, eventually, led to a long overdue decision to leave my career of 30 years.

I felt I had a grasp of the shadow side of the Prostitute from this experience and my thinking was echoed in an image from an old course I had taken at university. It was a Hellenistic statuette of the 2nd century BCE. Only 8 inches high, the

figure is of a veiled dancer. Her shrouded and masked figure spoke to me of the drag of demands and the imprisonment of the spirit and the gesture she made stayed with me.

But I could not find my way towards the friend Prostitute. I still hadn’t managed to access her. It was through the dialogues with my topical group and the many creative souls in CST, that I gradually found the door opening and the numinous sister of the little dancer began to emerge into the light in her full confidence and joy, the shrouding robe becoming luminous drapery, the constrained movements turning into the spreading motion with which she claimed her right to be what she chose to be in a world full of fertility and light.

I have walked with this archetype for a long time now, in her desperate highwire act and then in her world – transforming dance. I am grateful to both sides of the Prostitute and her lessons and hope these paintings do them justice.

Lynda Wingrove

The most important thing for me about making art is not the end product, but rather what I can learn about myself in the process of making it.

Prostitute: Rage! is the sixth in a series based on my personal archetypes. I have been working on this piece for over two years, not because it’s a complex artwork, but because of the complex emotions I needed to deal with as I worked with this archetype.

Here’s the story: Very early in life, Prostitute put herself into the Cage of Society’s Rules and Other People’s Expectations. At the time, she thought the only way to survive was to get people to approve of her so they would take care of her. She didn’t trust herself to be able to take care of herself. As she matured, she realized that she had sacrificed her integrity and

authenticity in the process. She always thought that, since she had put herself in the Cage, she could leave at any time and enter the Beautiful Garden of Creativity. This piece depicts her dismay upon leaving the Cage and finding herself, instead, on the Dismal Path through the Hellgate and into the Raging Inferno. Cheetah (who symbolizes my Higher Self) knows the only way out is through.

I like to work in this narrative, symbolic style. I appreciate the “fairy tale” quality in my work for it is indeed depicting a personal mythology. I love the intimacy of stitching by hand on fabrics and the obvious handmade character of the resulting artworks. My journey continues as I look forward to completing pieces for the rest of my archetypes.

Lynne Lee

Archetypes are mystery and provide a path on one’s journey in life. Choices are to be made at every turn, some help you to move forward, others protect you from perceived threat and yet others create chaos and havoc. As I work my way through the archetypes, I know they feed my creative soul immensely. My quilt reflects the activities of life that bring the components together as one surrounded by both the shadows and brightness of life.

Archetypes….Mining the Depths of my Creative Spirit 2022 89” x 79”

Art Quilt 4,000. Lynnelee52@gmail.com LynneLeeTextileArtist.com

Margaret "Meg" Filiatrault

There is nothing like walking on the beach under the light of a moon, while feeling a light breeze blowing through your hair. Wind and natural surroundings have always been important ingredients to please my Nature Child.

The primary process used to create Beach Breeze was “wet cyanotype” on 100% cotton fabric. Cyanotype is a chemical process that was used by early photographers to produce their images. Botanicals used in the composition were found in my neighborhood in South Carolina. I hand stitched wavy lines to imply the movement of the wind. The moon was created by masking out the sea oats and using shiva paint sticks to add the image.

My work is influenced by my deep feelings for the natural world. I hope by creating my work I will help others respect, enjoy, and feel more connected to the natural world around them.

Mary Mason Banks

In thinking about creating a piece of artwork for the 2022 archetype exhibition for Creative Strength Training, my Seeker came to mind. I have been aware of archetypes for a long time, both as a concept, and as a part of my own personal being. The Seeker was with me first, and has been accompanied by my Nature Child in most adventures. Add my budding Alchemist to make a trio, and it’s really a formula for mischief.

As I was musing about how to portray my Seeker, I came across an ancient concept called the urobouros. Though this was a new word for me, I recalled seeing pictures of artwork and jewelry fashioned into a circle. The circle might be in the form of a snake, a lizard, or a dragon. This ancient symbol goes back not years or even centuries, but millennia. As the urobouros devours its own tail in a never-ending cycle of life, death, and regeneration, it may be considered a thing of beauty or the stuff of nightmares.

I have chosen to incorporate the urobouros into another circular form, the ancient symbol of the Mandala. Other analogous symbols are present as well. I will leave the rest for you to decipher.

The urobouros border of my mandala originated as the circular edging of a traditional Indonesian batik. As I worked with my Seeker and my Nature Child, the other elements of the design revealed themselves. My Seeker was determined that this work be conceived as a simple beginning, a place of origin if you will, for my emerging archetypal array.

In his book, Care of the Soul, Thomas Moore states that “All work on the soul takes the form of a circle, a rotation.” The self is seen as the center of the soul around which the archetypes form a circle, bringing order and harmony to our lives. As this mandala provides me with a visual focus for my archetypes, it symbolizes my “Self–Center.”

What is it I seek? Truth and Beauty? Maybe once upon a time. What is it I seek?

To get up every morning with love in my heart.

To live in authenticity as best I am able, To keep my feet on the path, wherever the path may take me, To make my art with honor and love for all who have reached out a hand to me.

Nan Travers

Ibegan playing with fibers and dyeing at a very early age with my mother, who was a weaver. I have fond memories of the family mountain climbing to collect plants for her dyes. After trying many art media and different uses of fibers, I became fascinated with using paint brushes to apply dye to fabrics (especially silk) and experimented with creating layers of color and shapes, which I have done for the past 30 years. Over a decade ago, I began felting and fell in love with the sculptural qualities of felt while still being a fabric.

My latest work brings dyed fabrics and felting together. In the Archetype Tree series, I explore different archetypes through imagery of trees. Our relationships with ourselves and with others are complex. There are so many dynamics at play and one way to understand these is through

patterns of human behavior, which can be characterized as archetypes. The Archetype Tree series has allowed me to explore underlying themes with each of the archetypes.

The Liberator: Life Upended, Rooted With New Possibilities represents one of my own archetypes. I think of the Liberator as a death/rebirth story. As the tree dies and becomes uprooted, what is beneath the surface is now exposed and allow to grow. We are liberated from our past as we cultivate the new. In my own life, not only have I had many opportunities to start anew, I have had opportunities to help others also grow and find new ways of approaching their lives. In this piece, I have liberated some older felted pieces and reconstructed them into the dying tree, its new growth, and the background, providing new life to old materials.

Noelle Evans

My art is a way for me to deeply explore myself and the world I live in. I began my art journey as a quilter and continue my love affair with textiles and fiber. Fabric and thread remain my primary form of expression.

Search of Wholeness is the second piece in a series of twelve about the archetypes that I most closely identify with. Search of Wholeness is about my Seeker archetype. My Seeker has been my companion for as long as I can remember and has guided me on a quest to find my truth, to recognize my vulnerabilities, and to always seek my highest self.

For this series, I chose to work with a limited set of colors. The background is pieced and the other fabric shapes are fused to the background. I wanted to explore whether I could tell an interesting story using the simplest elements – solid fabric and thread.

Norrie MacIlraith

My Grandma LeGrand’s old travel trunk was kept in the garage filled with everything imaginable: we played dress-up; friends donned costumes for role acting & producing short productions – whatever could be thought of. I took piano lessons, I was recruited to High School Orchestra, and 4-H Band to play Bass Fiddle, and went to Pacific Music Camp Weekend for All State Music Orchestra. Saturday was reserved to listen to the Metropolitan Opera on radio. My parents provided special outings to “The City” – San Francisco, or over to Sacramento three or four times a year – attending plays, concerts, musical theatre, ballet, and orchestra offerings. As an adult, I have continued to be involved with all the fun and magic these endeavors offer. I have painted sets, designed and built costumes, been a costume director for Community Theatre, and even had a few parts acting. My career in Nursing has used role playing, music, and imagery in my Integrated Health Practices.

Crescendo is a very special work representing my love for music, theatre, imagination and play all thrown into multiple experiences as a child and extending throughout my adult life. This endeavor was brainstormed after a CST Abstraction discussion about music and seeing colours which allowed my Magical Child to soar high! I have based this work on Ravel’s “Bolero”: I find this music almost hypnotizing, mesmerizing, and meditative.

It also allows a bit of magic to prevail, as first single instruments start the rhythm and/ or one of the two distinct melodies. Each orchestra section follows being introduced and then alternating the melodies among themselves as the music builds until all come together in a continuous blending, with each round undulating louder. Is it any wonder that an “Explosion” concludes this work?

In representing my Magical Child, this work incorporates a number of techniques to achieve Crescendo as a wall hanging with movement. The cotton background was hand painted using very light to dark purple. An off white wool batt-blanket was wet felted to provide a stable felted base to attach other designs. Snare drums are heard throughout the music – they are represented by enlarging circles of brown tone roving, needle felted to background felt. The two melodies are done in two color schemes of wool roving which was needle felted onto a felted base. The orchestra comes together playing the melodies, and then end in the explosion. Quilting of the background is done in undulating waving lines representing the musical flow. Embellishments completed in differing colors, beads, and stitching, feature each instrumental section of the orchestra and work their way across the work. Crescendo has allowed the magic and imagination to be combined in this abstract interpretation of this music – such fun!

Paula Dean

My art is a culmination of years of asking myself “what if?” I believe in creativity, imagination and self-expression, and often reflect on the legacy of creative ancestors before me.

I enjoy incorporating layers of fabric, paint, paper, and dye and even sometimes found objects. I approach each new piece with little to no plan that quickly takes a journey down its own path. Everything I create has an intuitive element with the piece taking control and directing each move.

This past year has been focused on exploring my Saboteur and Committee. Working toward quieting those voices I hear that say “you are not good enough.” It brings up so many questions about why I would care more about what someone else thinks than I do my own opinions. Knowing these fears are overblown yet powerless to stop the thoughts. Each of these figures represents an active voice in my life and make up my Committee. Creating this piece allowed me to really analyze the voices I perceive as constantly judging. I am closer to recognizing those voices for what they really are: Voices that don’t deserve the power I’ve given them.

Internal Influence 2022 21x19

Mixed Media NFS

studioonthebluff@gmail.com studioonthebluff.com

Paula Straw

On a sunny autumn day, my husband and I were bicycling along a country road. We stopped to admire a well tended vineyard. The twisted branches were ready for harvest and the leaves and fruit were a glorious blaze of color.

Inspiration swirled around me.

I learned that a grapevine begins as a robust root stalk. With grafting, meticulous tending and pruning, the vines organize and focus on the energy needed to flower and produce grapes. The fall harvest is followed by a dormant winter. Come the spring, if the grapevine is left unattended it will grow into unruly branches and fruiting is poor. To be mutually beneficial, the grapevine and the human rely on each other symbiotically.

Metaphorically, this is my lesson: how to be in relationship with my archetypes.

For this quilt, The Child, The Student, The Artist, The Storyteller, The Saboteur and The Prostitute were the commanding voices and watchful eyes. Their attributes are depicted in the words of the root system. Ah, and do not overlook the magic of the Raven.

My art work is a box full of archetypes. I started sewing beads as they magically reminded me of my travels. They complemented my textile designs. Adding pine needles reminded me of my Pioneer archetype, and that led me on a journey of color/shape/texture, and symbols. As I assembled the jewelry box, my Engineer/ Hedonist pulled out the recycled material my ancestors stashed in my art studio. Then the Dilettante took charge, creating many shapes, skills –

exploring all creative possibilities. My Nature Child, being in the fifth house, wanted to creatively play. I visual the Warrior wearing the spiral-beaded totem necklace, and opening up the small tin box. Inside that box is a handmade, dyed mini accordion book of 12 archetypes. Which card should I pick from the book? I honor my spiritual play/path and knowledge like a sacred contract. My shrine box protects the cosmic aura of the subconscious. My story or our story? Dream on…

Sharla Jean Hoskin

For this piece I am working with the archetype pair, Artist/Engineer. I selected the Artist and Engineer combination because my background is a mixture of art and science. My family, my education, and my career were all a balance of these two problem-solving methods. Interestingly my preferred process of printmaking also combines science and art. I enjoy balancing the planning involved in preparing to print with the more intuitive layering of patterns and shapes in the studio.

The print for this exhibition was created using screen printing. Currently, I work with acrylic ink on paper. I take ideas from concept to screen using photography, Procreate, Adobe Illustrator, and Cricut Design Space. My inspiration comes from nature and historic or ethnic patterns, which are abstracted to basic colors and shapes. My work is about color experimentation and movement. I am fascinated by vanishing and revealing edges, shapes, and layers. Visual exploration is the essential requirement for me.

Typically, my work is not intended to be narrative, however, this print focuses on the difference between the artist and the engineer using a composition with two dominant elements. One set is geometric, representing the engineer. The other set

is organic for the artist. The organic shape originated as a photograph of a kale plant in my container garden. It was reduced to a high contrast black and white image to create a screen for printing.

The color strategy of warm vs cool illustrates two sides to thinking. The building of shapes is an exploration of layers with clear or ambiguous edges. These are analogous to the complexity in thought. The highlight in the center is created by placing the light silver against the dark background. Sometimes in the studio the right effect just appears after all the measurements, color mixing, and planning. In this case the metaphor is that the light is the answer, the result of two types of thinking.

I selected the title Symphony, based on one of the aptitudes discussed by Daniel H. Pink in A Whole New Mind:

“Symphony is the ability to put together the pieces. It is the capacity to synthesize rather than to analyze; to see relationships between seemingly unrelated fields; to detect broad patterns rather than to deliver specific answers; and to invent something new by combining elements nobody else thought to pair” (p. 126).

Sheryl Miller

My fiber journey began as a child, making my Barbie a lime green cape, followed by an electric blue and white dress for myself in fifth grade. Crochet, embroidery and then quilting caught my fancy. Machine quilting became a passion, and I taught machine quilting classes in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Art quilts are my focus, and this passion continues now.

My work has been included in juried exhibits, including the Tulsa Artists Coalition Member Show (Juror’s Choice award/2018) and the Fiber Artists of Oklahoma’s Fiberworks (2006-2022). I have studied with Betty Busby and Jane Dunnewold, learning new mixed media processes.

My art quilts are a combination of mixed media and collage. I work abstractly, using pieced and dyed fabrics as a base for my work. I layer hand-dyed, printed, and stamped fabrics, as well as hand

decorated papers in these compositions, and frequently cut a piece apart and reassemble it to create further abstraction. The layering process adds depth. I am currently experimenting with adding clay elements as well.

Nature is my playground. I have a nature child nestled deep inside. Sitting in the crook of a pear tree, reading a library book, sent me to other lands, but kept me well grounded. Now I look out the studio windows into my bee and butterfly garden. The magical colors and shapes of plants and insects influence each piece I create. The passing seasons work their ever-changing magic on the garden as the sun changes its course. These seasonal changes influence my work too.

I am surrounded by the calm of nature. It circles around me every day, just as it did when I was two, playing in my backyard. Just as it will for the rest of my life.

Sonja Campbell

Ibegan making bed quilts in the late 80s. I made hand-pieced and hand-quilted bed quilts. I soon changed to Art Quilts. Using original drawings for my designs, I pieced a variety of quilts over the next few years. I transitioned to using Photoshop to create my designs. I continue to use photo-generated designs for most of my quilts. Currently I am experimenting with superimposing decorations or figures on a striped background.

In my childhood I had created many fantasies. Playing dress-up with my friends and having various adventures in my backyard. It was a great beginning for later creative endeavors as an adult. The Magical Child was the first archetype I identified as one of my own.

My Magical Child is dressed up as a princess, amazed at the reality she has created. Tomorrow she can be another character in a different time and place. There is endless variety in her life.

Sonja Lee-Austin

The light sides of the Child archetype for me are the Nature Child and the Magical Child. The challenging, shadow side for me is when my shadow Victim teams up with the Child to become the Invisible Child. I have unconsciously made myself invisible in social situations by being quiet, staying on the side-lines, and observing. In some situations, I have felt completely invisible, almost like a ghost that observes and listens to conversations, but no one sees. My challenge is to stop hiding and take a more active role in my “heroine’s journey.”

Susan Buckingham

Wingéd Messengers was created after a dream I had where a Raven came calling at my door. This ‘visitation’ reminded me of The Trickster as the Creator’s helper or in fact, messenger. I am always looking for direction wherever I may find it. Was my visitor there to give me some insight, inspiration or a message? In this case, the idea for my piece appeared and then the concept of creation developed. Hand-dyed and batik fabrics with an inset of flour-paste resist/acrylic paint and watercolor washed cotton. Fused collage, machine quilted.

Wingéd Messengers

2022

21” x 27.5” Quilted Wall Hanging 375.

Suebuck2252@gmail.com

Susan Goldie

I’m an artist and fashion designer who is just beginning to understand the impulses that have been guiding my work since I was young. I have had a crayon, marker, or paintbrush in my hand since I was four years old, and a sewing machine became a permanent appendage not long after that. Fast forward many decades: I still thrive on creating, and I still surround myself with colorful art supplies and now, high tech sewing machines. Delving into abstract mixed-media art has been a driving force for the last five years, and I can now see the influence of archetypes in my work, even when I wasn’t aware of them.

I painted Alternate Access during a couple sessions (which is quick for me), and it was my first foray into the world of oil, and cold wax. I also used a new tool – a silicone wedge replaced the paint brush. As the materials were new to me, a beginner mindset served well, and I set out to learn and to experiment. I did not

imagine I would end up with a finished piece, but that is what happened. Although the painting is abstract, I was not attempting to manipulate any particular object or idea. At a certain point, I realized I was creating something I was going to be happy with – not just a practice run – and I was surprised!

Looking at the piece, I feel it represents an opening to an alternate consciousness, a meditative place where I can connect with forces greater than me. I like traveling to that place, it feels calm, and there’s no room for ego there. Alternate Access was born from an extreme opening of spirit, and by pausing the know-it-all chatter in my head to allow internal nudges and intuition to guide the laying down of color and form. I let the painting become what it wanted to become. I’d say the Visionary, the Artist, and the Traveler were in the wings guiding the entire process. I am so grateful.

Alternate Access

2022 24” by 20”

Mixed Media: Oil Paint, Oil Sticks, Pastel NFS susan@susangoldie.com susangoldie.com

Susan Smith

Looking for my place in the world, to create my art, I never realized how much archetypes reflected on it. I made quilts, I belonged to quilt guilds, but traditional quilts weren’t my joy. I started making fiber art in 2003, I found my tribe in fiber art in 2015 and started calling myself an Artist. I worked through the self-doubts. Not listening to the shadow side of the Judge – saying “you’re not good enough”. The criticism of others who didn’t understand me –my Committee. The Saboteur is always nibbling on my heels.The Rebel kept telling me I could accomplish anything I wanted to, if I set my mind to it. The Dilettante wanted to learn every method of making art that I possibly could – The Student appreciated the teachers who share their knowledge.

Standing behind construction blockades, I was always looking for my tribe. Then my Magical Child with her magic wand broke through the blockades to find

my tribe of Art Sisters who guided me. Their wisdom, kindness, knowledge, and encouragement guided me to create my art the way I see it in my mind and feel it in my heart.

I hear the Artist whispering in my ear, saying you did it – we like what you created. My Nature Child hears the music and rhythm of the outdoors, the birds in the trees, singing their sweet songs, a breeze that brings the sweet smell of flowers – these are the things that feed my soul. The Seeker, the Judge and the Rebel have made me see that I don’t need approval for what I create. If my heart and soul are happy with my vision of ART that is what matters. Staying true to myself, to take joy in being alive each day, relishing the kindness and art of others, the beauty of the world around me, transforming what I see into art that can be shared with others. This is how my archetypes guide me when I doubt myself.

As a Nature Child, I grew up playing in our large backyard. I remember laying on the hillside looking up and listening to the cottonwoods talking to me. In the fall, we raked loads of leaves, created piles to jump in, and then had a bonfire with the leaves and other garden detritus. I was fortunate to be able to spend summers at our cabin on the bluffs of the St. Croix River. Life was carefree, and we were able to roam and run free until we heard the dinner bell ring. The Birch trees were prevalent near our cabin and the white paper thin bark was a delight and mystery to me.

This deep seated love of nature is still within me. Now that I’ve lived in Colorado for 30 years and am no longer working, I can really enjoy my forays into the natural world. Aspens are very prevalent in the Rocky Mountain West and their white, gray and tan bark reminds me of the Birch trees of my youth.

This piece combines my Nature Child, Engineer and Artist…and oh yes, the Saboteur. These archetypes came to the forefront as I was conceptualizing this design. The Artist and Nature Child were talking to each other initially as I developed the embossed and painted aspen silhouettes. Then, the Engineer came front and center, to figure out spacing and how to attach these silhouettes. Of course, the Saboteur always needed to be talked down so that I would complete this project and not stop in mid-stream.

Hope you enjoy this portrayal of The Many Colors of Winter in an Aspen forest. Coincidentally, my nickname is Tree and I’m drawn toward making landscapes. No surprise there!

The Many Colors of Winter

2022 24.5” x 34.5”

Art Quilt 300. ely60stpaul@gmail.com www.theresaely.com

Trish Hanna

Iam a mixed media artist with a special interest in photography. Recently I have found it is not the making of a perfectly sharp image that engages me so much as photo-impressionism, a form of abstraction. Over the past year I have explored the cyanotype process, one of the earliest forms of photography, dating from 1852, that can be used to develop either finely detailed images, such as blueprints, or very loose, abstract images, such as the one I’ve made here. Cyanotype medium is created from two chemicals which, when mixed, are activated by UV light. Results can be predictable, or very unpredictable, and are subject to many variables.

As the daughter of a wounded WWII veteran, my childhood was disrupted by my father’s PTSD, then known as “shell

shock.” While reading the archetypes, the Wounded Child resonated, both in my own life and his. At the time he enlisted he was 18, not much more than a child himself, not even old enough to vote. In Memoriam I use the photograph of my father’s Royal Canadian Air Force graduating regiment (1943) in an interpretation of Remembrance Day, November 11th. Now nearly 80 years on from the time of the photograph, compassion has led me to forgiveness. I see these young men in a moment of innocence, with youthful enthusiasm, a sense of adventure, answering the call to arms, and no concept of the physical and mental trauma they will experience, or how it will affect their lives, and the lives of their families. Results that were both predictable and very unpredictable.

Vicki Finchum

The raven’s symbolism includes Intelligence, Transformation, Insight, Adaptability, Guidance, and Opportunity among many others. In the past three to four years the Dilettante has been my ever-present guide, leading me into many of the symbols pertaining to the raven. I have transformed and accepted myself as an artist as never before. I have gained such insight into my soul and gained the intelligence and courage to let the Dilettante lead me there. I have experimented with many new materials that I never thought I would use including hand embroidery and paint on fabric, and my journey has provided exciting new opportunities for creating.

Raven 2022 16.5” x 21” Mixed Media Textile 300. topztitched@gmail.com

Zet Baer

The characters printed on the front columns can be translated as “Seeing One’s Nature Becoming Buddha”. I employed the mirror to encourage the viewer to become immersed in this process of becoming: becoming Buddha, becoming the Goddess, becoming who you truly are – your best Self. Imagery of the mirror and its reflections have been explored in poetry, literature and film for years. Mirrors are symbolic of spiritual and psychological depth, capable of showing us who we are on a deeper level – the reflection of our true self that lies beneath our surface appearance.

In my work, I often invoke the archetype of the Goddess who embodies wisdom, guidance, physical grace, athletic prowess or sensuality. She comes to us from a variety of spiritual traditions, including Kali (India), Tara (Tibet), Quanyin (China), Brigid (Celtic), those of the ancient Greco-Roman and Africans, as well as the many manifestations of Mary, the Mother of Jesus. The Goddess here is sitting in repose, reflecting what has come before and what is ahead, but focused mainly on the present moment.

Zoie Holzknecht

When we feel the Seeker archetype at work we are often facing difficult or important questions in our lives. Embracing the Seeker means bravely reaching out into that unknown space in spite of, and because of, the gaps we see and feel.

Brave Spaces attempts to portray the dichotomy of the spheres we inhabit and are influenced by; our internal and external worlds, the human and the divine, the perceptions we carry with us and the actions we take or don’t take. The decisions we make and the questions we ask inside one of these

spaces are inexorably linked to the others.

The Seeker reaches out and acts externally, and also reaches within to find further understanding. Discerning which core beliefs are assisting in her efforts, and which appear to be helpful, but only serve to weigh her down, will affect every step of her climb.

The Seeker reminds us that all climbs and questions can bring rewards of their own if they are untethered to manicured looking paths and specific outcomes. Grace is found in our efforts.

Hard Truths

Every year we initiate “topical groups” as part of the Creative Strength Training community. These groups, which have on average 8 - 15 members, explore areas of special interest to the members, and are a source of camaraderie and learning.

The Big, Bad, Beautiful Brown project created by artist Jill Littlewood, inspired a group that refers to itself as the Explorations in Social Practice Art group. These members have spent 2022 exploring social justice issues and how to address them through their art-making practices. The work is sometimes confrontational, often made with recycled, or cast-off materials, and is made in order to raise awareness around social justice issues.

We are committed to a fair and inclusive world, and are proud to include this subset of works within the Inspired by Archetypes exhibition catalogue this year. Congratulations to these CST members. I hope you will find their work to be thought-provoking. Hard truths are not easily dispelled, but acknowledging them is the first step toward change.

Jane Dunnewold & Zenna James

Anthology

Statement from the Explorations in Social Practice Art group:

I

n the summer of 2021, during the throes of the pandemic and racial protests throughout the country, Jane Dunnewold introduced Jill Littlewood to members of Creative Strength Training (CST). At the core of Jill’s art and life is a passion for social justice. It was this passion as well as her collaborative art project, Big Bad Beautiful Brown, that led to the formation of the CST focal group, Explorations in Social Practice Art. We are artists committed to exploring the use of creativity and community for the purpose of raising awareness and initiating discourse about issues facing our society that are difficult to accept. We researched past and current individuals and groups involved in social practice art and we studied how to create compelling and intentional statements through our art. This exhibition is the culmination of our explorations.

No matter the issue each of us chose to give a visual voice – racism, police brutality, the environment, gender equality, gender identity, or hunger – each of us was driven by our desire to affect change. This commonality often led to discussions of the various archetypes that undergird our efforts. Many of us have discerned that the Rebel, the Advocate and the Judge are at the heart of our individual passions.

Whichever archetype may be involved, collectively our desire has been and continues to be that our art will bring the viewer to a deeper awareness of various social justice issues, and offer artful ways in which we can make a difference. We hope that the social justice issues depicted in our exhibition, Hard Truths Anthology, will promote greater understanding, awareness and compassion.

Nancy Tully & Jo Thomas

Al Bates Lombard

Iam non-binary (enby) and this is 12 year old me, Al. Not a guy, not a gal, Al. These arrows contain words that have been hurled at me leaving lasting wounds. While doing research for this piece I was not surprised to learn that 94% of non-binary adults have considered suicide (UCLA Williams Institute). What may surprise you is that there is one simple way you can help reduce that rate! If and when you are told someone’s name and pronouns; use them, no questions asked, just use them. Unconditional acceptance of the trans and non-binary people in your life saves lives.

If you would like to learn more check out my webpage www. albatesart.com/art/be

Simply Words hurt Pronouns bring joy Use them It could save a life Simply

Carol Chewning

Ihave been an advocate/activist for Mother Nature and the environment since I was a teenager. Now there is an even greater sense of urgency to make people aware of the plastic pollution poisoning our fragile planet.

Geologists and scientists are grappling with the name for this era in which humans have caused mass extinctions of plant and animal species, polluted the oceans and altered the atmosphere. “Plasticene” seems appropriate. We are quite literally drowning in the stuff, and there is no where else for single-use plastic to go until we can close the loop and make it profitable to recycle and reuse all the material. Like an unwelcome guest, once it enters our world it never goes away.

Consumers have been encouraged to recycle plastic water bottles and plastic grocery bags, although only 9% actually gets recycled. These items can be remade into other products. Nearly 380 million tons of plastic packaging is used as wrapping just to get products from one place to another, only to be thrown away once its intended purpose is completed. As yet there is no system to recycle and re-use these plastic wrappers; so they end up in the landfill, or worse in our coastal waterways and eventually the ocean.

An estimated 10 million tons of plastic are dumped into the ocean every year which subsequently breaks down into toxic microplastic particles, about the size of a sesame seed or less. Just like frayed fabric, the plastic releases and leaches tiny bits of itself into the atmosphere. This Pretty Plastic Poison has been found in our air, our water, our food, and a 2022 study found people eat 5 grams of micro and nanoplastics, about the size of a credit card, every week. Not only is plastic detected in our bloodstream and lungs, but also now in our gastrointestinal tract. Scientists predict that by the year 2050 there will be more plastic in the ocean than fish, plastics will account for 20% of total oil consumption.

My quilt is made single-use grocery store packaging cut and stitched into traditional quilt square patterns: nine-patch, rail fence, peaceful geese, and modified square dance to illustrate the amount of plastic packaging we use during a normal day. Unlike a traditional quilt my quilt is neither warm nor snuggly. The food may be mostly healthy, but the packaging should come with a red warning label.

Find out what you can do in your community to stem the tide of plastic pollution.

Dixie Walker

Advocating for the Earth where textiles are concerned is a challenging task. Consider the facts:

• The textile industry is the second largest polluter in the world.

• Textile production is the second largest consumer of water worldwide.

• From cotton seed to finished garment, a pair of jeans requires 20,000 liters of water.

• The farming of crops for textile production makes liberal use of poisonous pesticides. Cotton farming alone accounts for 20% of global pesticide use.

• Textile dyeing and finishing is responsible for 20% of global water pollution.

• 80% of textile production wastewater is returned to the environment untreated.

This is not a pretty picture, for sure. But even more disconcerting is the matter of textile waste:

• The average American consumer throws away 81 pounds of textiles a year. This is the equivalent of one garbage truck full of fabric unloading at an incinerator or landfill every second.

• It can take 200 years for textiles to decompose in a landfill. During that time, textiles generate greenhouse methane gas and leach toxic chemicals and dyes into the groundwater and soil.

• Half of the textiles produced today are polyester, which is most often manufactured from petroleum. These fabrics release micro plastics into the environment as they decompose or burn. An estimated 10% of the micro plastics found in the ocean come from textiles.

What, then, shall we wear? From clothing to bedding to home furnishings and beyond, fabric touches nearly every aspect of our lives. Living without textiles is not a feasible option. So, how can we begin to heal our environment from this pollution?

• Buy less, and use longer.

• Buy the best quality you can afford, to ensure the items have a longer life. Boycott cheap fast fashion.

• Buy organic natural fiber fabrics whenever possible.

• Avoid petroleum based fabrics (polyester, nylon, acrylic) when an organic natural fiber alternative is available.

• Buy secondhand. Thrift stores and online used clothing companies are excellent environmental options.

• Reuse. Give your textiles another chance as an up-cycled garment or utilitarian rag.

• Donate usable clothing and shoes to reputable resellers. These companies routinely sort donations into what has sales potential and what can be recycled.

• Examine store take back programs and use them if they are environmentally friendly.

• Lobby your state and local governments to enact laws prohibiting textiles in landfills and incinerators. Massachusetts recently put into effect such a law; other states can follow suit.

The 81 blue reused fabric pieces in this artwork represent the pounds of useful fabric one American throws away each year. Whether burned or left to decompose, this “trash” threatens our health and the health of the planet. The Advocate archetype urges you to be a part of the solution. Reduce. Reuse. Recycle.

Ileana Soto

Creatures that live in the sea and on the land are in relationship with one another and their environments. From gestation to birth to death, their cellular layers interact.

The three-year gestation period from 2019 to 2022 has included pandemic fear alongside political and climate distress. My original 2019 piece formed a foundation for development and future layering. Recently, I folded sections under and stripped pieces away, focusing and simplifying. Areas were given thick, complex layers of paint and color. A more stable, womb-like form emerged.

Throughout the forming and re-forming of this piece, the archetype of the Mother called to me. Mothering myself, I call attention to the inter-relatedness of our environments. Nurturing one nurtures the other.

Jennie Harris

Born Australian, in the 1950’s, I grew up experiencing significant differences in the treatment of women to men. I still wear my emancipation pants of the 1970s; it was exciting back then. Change has since been a roller-coaster. It is now ten years since Julia Gillard made her misogyny speech in Australia’s parliament; well worth a listen. (1)

Now 2022, little progress has been made.

Every day women around the world are killed, maimed, scarred, raped, stolen, abused, cheated, derided, belittled, patronized, denied basic rights. Women of all faiths, colour, intellect and purpose. Half of humanity.

As a woman who lived through years of hope, disappointment and despair, who found it difficult to speak out, I decided to trumpet common experiences of women. Little did I realize my own pain would be stitched into my work.

Frequently, I was confronted with “ugliness”: the look and feel of the fabric, the messy stitching, the inability to find the right emotional colours,

stitching the wrong pieces together, the needle getting stuck in the fabric, holes appearing as I stitched … on it went. I was stuck for weeks, unable to “speak”, even through my textiles.

New materials were avoided for this age-old issue. The fabric within the female mouth is full of cobwebs, the mouth so long unable to speak. Arrows represent hurt. Colours chosen reflect “nasty”, “fear”, and “blood”. Language used to speak to, or about, women is both coarse and nasty, and subtle and demeaning. The examples reflect the breadth of how language is used against women.

Power imbalance, which enables disrespect, lies at the heart of this issue. Tied to historical structures and cultural behaviors that support the status quo, women have significantly less economic, political, religious and environmental power than men.

IT’S 2022, WE CAN DO BETTER!

(1) https://Youtu.be/SOPsxpMzYw4

Jill Littlewood

If you haven’t thought about your skin color today it’s probably because you are light skinned and don’t have to. Your skin will not make you a target, or keep you in low wage employment, or hamper your chances of marriage. You will not be tempted to contribute to the multi-billion dollar global industry for skin lighteners, inevitably made with caustic, toxic chemicals.

This global industry is an artifact of the power of Western culture and its military might in world politics – “the sun never sets on the British Empire” was once a fact. Currently the sun never sets on American cultural influence –the most recent example being 150 teenagers who died in Korea at a Halloween festival. We export our culture everywhere and yet we, at home, are in turmoil over who can include themselves as true Americans – largely along racial lines, which are often color lines.

My project, Big Bad Beautiful Brown, attempts to address the legacy of Western domination expressed in the phenomenon of colorism – prejudices

around skin color. I did nothing to earn the privilege of light skin but every day I benefit from it. Growing up I saw how this played out: in my high school the teenagers with the darkest skin were on the lowest tracks, where as all the White kids and light-skinned Black kids were on the upper tracks. Skin color is a function of one layer of melanin cells and has zero connection to intelligence or physical ability, character or ability at work – except that we make it so, by whose skin is considered higher status.

Big Bad Beautiful Brown is a collaborative book arts project: I made 200 books of brown cloth and paper and gave them to anyone who asked. I wanted to seed conversations and I am pleased some places that has happened. I am now working on my own brown books, this being a page from #42. To see the whole book go to YouTube: https://youtu.be/ vvyyjqPVal8

To see what other artists have done with the book they received look on Instagram: #bbbeautifulbrown

Jo Thomas

In this most turbulent and toxic time, I am troubled by the injustice and inhumanity that pervades our society. I wonder when the limits of delusion and denial will be reached.

Unsilent is my attempt to convey visually the current movement to promote truth, acceptance, equality and our common humanity.

Quiet whispers, emerging from crowds of complacency, signal hope and optimism in this collage of hand-painted and handdyed silk organza textiles, with an emphasis on the use of color and saturation.

JoAnne Hoffman

There are so many hard truths I could have chosen, but this one hits me in the gut every time there is another killing spree somewhere in the United States. It continually makes me aware that we, my loved ones, my friends, and my fellow citizens, are not really safe on our own streets, in our schools, our supermarkets, our movie theaters, at concerts – anywhere. At any time, someone has easy access to weapons of war, weapons only designed to do one thing: kill human beings. Kill as many people as possible in as extremely short amount of time. Rapidly fire bullets that tear people apart. It’s not a pretty picture and I don’t intend my representation of this problem to be pretty either. No other nation on earth has the gun violence deaths that we have here

in the United States. There is no need to have assault style weapons available anywhere. They are not used for game hunting, they are only used for people hunting. We need to reinstate the ban on assault weapons now.

I have only been an art quilter since 2020. I love this medium and the choices of techniques it gives me to represent whatever I want, be it social issues, nature, people, animals, or abstract design. I have been an artist in one way or another my whole life, first as a jewelry/metalsmith artist, and then as a painter. I grew up sewing, so now art quilting brings all these skills together. I am particularly pleased when I can use my artistic voice to call attention to social issues.

Kathleen Garrant

Thirty four million Americans – including nine million children -–experience hunger each day. As a School Nutritionist for twenty-two years, I observed hungry children running from the bus to the school cafeteria, each morning, for their first bite of breakfast and it always tugged at my heart strings. Now, as a volunteer, I regularly observe adults picking up food at an inner-city food cupboard and it continues to pull the strings of my heart.

Like air and water, everyone should have access to food. Yet so many people struggle to find nourishment. Uncertainty, chaos, and confusion surfaces when hunger blocks thinking. For individuals, and families, a large part of each day is taken up with worry as to how – or if – their bowls will be filled. We are a country with a food surplus, but we do not feed all our citizens.

My belief is that ART can change the world by raising awareness of the hard

truths faced by the hungry. My journey to find a way to share what I know began with a request that other artists make an empty bowl on a 6”x 6” square of fabric. Many quilters and fiber artists from around the United States responded

I received eighty-six beautifully stitched and painted empty bowls. As you can see, the old saying that “there is power in numbers” came true. My project is a collaboration with a community of creatives who share my passion about the injustice of hunger. Each artist unleashed energy as their hands stitched and painted and their awareness grew.

I encourage you to join in: any empty bowl images received in the future will be added to the piece you see. My hope is that awareness of hunger in our country will be shared so we can change the future for anyone challenged by food insecurity.

Lisa Heller

Iam outraged about recent government attempts in the United States to control women’s bodies. My quilt, Safe & Legal, reminds viewers that in areas where abortion is illegal or restricted, women still get abortions.

My abstract art quilt includes elements that represent women as vessels (the circles), women and medical practitioners imprisoned for choosing to end pregnancy (fencing), and reminders of the many women who die or are injured by illegal and/or unsafe abortions (the coat hangers).

According to the World Health Organization, every eight minutes a woman in a developing nation dies of complications from an unsafe abortion and that

unsafe abortions are the third leading cause of maternal deaths worldwide. The U.S tends to see itself as better than developing nations and as a role model for the rest of the world, yet recent restrictions on abortion access and family planning options have made it clear that the U.S. is moving backward. It makes me wonder – are we really better than others?

The overwhelming support my quilt has received is bittersweet. I am filled with gratitude for the response and also deeply saddened to still be fighting for a woman’s right to choose what happens with her body. I thank my friends who encouraged me to share Safe & Legal and the groups that have displayed it. My wish is that this issue will soon be history.

Lisa Jenni

“The decision whether or not to bear a child is central to a woman’s life, to her well-being and dignity. When the government controls that decision for her, she is being treated as less than a full adult human responsible for her own choices.”

- Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg –

In my lifetime, I’ve lived in different countries, under different laws and political systems. Human Rights and autonomy of the body has been a central point in the constitution of each country, and its interpretations has led to equality.

The elimination of a woman’s personal right to decide over her own body goes

very deep. Does the mere biological fact that she has ovaries and a womb make her a lesser human being than a man? Can she freely decide over her future, opportunities? Why should anyone hope to be the sole deciding voice over their own body and mind? This is not only about abortion, but also about all human rights. When this right can be taken away, what would be a STOP to take other constitutional rights away? To marry whom you love, the right to use contraception, and even “the right to bear arms”?

Say NO.

Marilyn Pitman Waite

This piece is a culmination of social issues

I have been wrangling with for 60 years.

Born as a 4th generation Southern Californian, and raised in the land of clean beaches, mountains and sun. Juxtaposed was the sharp contrast of the glitz and materialism of Hollywood a half hour away from my house. The 60’s and beyond became the “buy it, throw it” generation.

Earth Day, April 22, 1970 hit me with an unexpected force. My Rebel and Advocate were sitting in the wings ready to pounce urging me to ask the question “what can I do?”

I began using the mantra, Act Locally, Think Globally! With friends we started a recycling center that went from volunteer led to a line item in the Atchison, Kansas city budget! Fifty years later with climate activists making little impact on the politics of climate change and war on our land we are in chaos with overwhelming HARD TRUTHS.

Today I’m a visual artist learning about the system of archetypal patterns. I approach the hard truths with like-minded women SEEKing other ways to answer the question, “What can I do visually to raise awareness?”

My Seeker looks for truth and facts, my Rebel is always ready to act, the Advocate has pen in hand to compose the message, and my

Artist is ready to create the visual – a collaboration with the different aspects of myself.

I zeroed in on FORCED MIGRATION resulting from the Climate Crisis. Twenty million people are displaced each year. (World Forum)

And war – bombing residential and industries big and small. At least 37 million people have been displaced as a direct result of the wars fought by the United States since Sept. 11, 2001. (NY Times)

How to depict crisis? My piece is comprised of three sections, the first implies a rugged journey of migration, often to the USA – now a country divided. The second and third pieces put the emphasis on chaos and senseless destruction. Tears, a symbol used by my Seeker and my Artist, convey the deep emotion felt for the refugees/migrants wandering the globe looking for home.

I chose materials destined for the landfill and oceans – plastics, cardboard, bubble wrap, and recycled cloth painted and embroidered. The colors align with the images. It was assembled so it could be reconfigured in other public venues. There was a conscious attempt to jar, to cause discomfort and to heighten awareness. The goal was to have the viewer ask, “What can I do to help my planet?”

Marty Wolins

Iam white and my ancestors and I are colonizers. In 1620, my ancestor was a clergy and civic leader who helmed the Mayflower. How do I reckon with this? In collectives of white colleagues, we have a common goal of re-shaping our conditioned white patterns, including implicit racial bias. I am a product of, and a participant in, white supremacy culture, which teaches us to see and feel others as strangers. And teaches us to be strangers to ourselves. How do we re-shape this, and what do we re-shape this into?

This triptych puts our work into visual form, showing three stages and their themes:

(1) Recognizing white supremacy patterns— individualization, disconnection, dissociation, a blankness at our core from being a stranger to ourselves, sharp edges of defensiveness;

(2) Building a collective—new learning, initial steps towards solidarity, re-affirming our knowing that others are to be treated with dignity, reconnecting with nature;

(3) Re-shaping whiteness without supremacy—greater solidarity, shared leadership, taking turns resting within the collective, fortifying our capacity for right-action, softening edges, heart-centered relationship and accountability.

My hope was that this visual form would in turn teach me about re-shaping whiteness without supremacy. I chose the technique of two-color screen printing because this technique has a slow design process and it creates random, and unplanned colors and effects.

The visual form has indeed taught me. One example was how the design process evolved. I carried over the same eleven shapes from the middle panel to the right panel, and arranged nine of them randomly in an open semi-circle. I drew two of the shapes resting in the collective, and drew tendrils of care extending only between those forming the outer circle. The outer circle wasn’t much more than half a circle, so I added more shapes to it. Then I realized that my design choice reflected white supremacy patterns—an over-focus on productivity and usefulness, without valuing a connection to rest and recovery. I redrew, to allow more space between the original nine outer circle shapes, and to connect the outer circle end shapes’ tendrils of care to the two resting in the collective. Then wow! This new allowing of space and connection organically created a heart shape.

I am grateful for the collectives that love me and challenge me to shift.

Nancy Tully

Names, whether of a person or thing, are integral to human nature. Names lend identity. In the case of Lost Legacies, a name is a marker of loss, an unnecessary and senseless loss. According to In Memoriam: I Can’t Breathe, an online memoriam compiled by Dr. Renée Ater of the University of Maryland, one hundred and seventy one unarmed black and brown people lost their lives at the hands of the police between 1968 and 2021. Lost Legacies records those names, and hopefully provides some kind of marker for the lives that have been lost to parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, children, brothers, sisters, neighbors and friends.

In the midst of the protests following the deaths of Breanna Taylor and George Floyd, I watched in distress as racial protests unfolded across the country. Mired in the pandemic, I felt helpless to affect any kind of change. But my passion for social justice led me to delve into the history of the relationship between people of color and the police.

Ultimately, what I discovered were missing pieces that prompted two essential questions. Namely, in the forty-two years from 1968 to 2009, forty-two deaths

were recorded. However, in the ten years between 2010 and 2019, one hundred and nine deaths were recorded. What accounts for such a disparity?

It is this disparity that is at the heart of Lost Legacies. What started happening in 2010? I contend that cell phone video, police video and social media have dramatically affected our understanding of the deeply ingrained nature of racism within the police departments throughout the United States. The hard truth of racism has been clearly visible for the last twelve years for anyone who chooses to look. And nowhere was that hard truth more visible than on the day that George Floyd was murdered.

Ultimately, I was left with two questions – how many unknown deaths have been hidden from view and how many more will take place before change occurs?

For the sake of all people of color, especially those who have lost their loved ones, I can only hope that change happens sooner rather than later.

I am incredibly thankful to my family and friends who collaborated with me on this project.

Congratulations!

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Jane Dunnewold dunnewoldj@janedunnewold.com

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Jane Dunnewold teaches and lectures internationally, and has mounted numerous solo artist exhibitions. She has authored a dozen books, including the classic Complex Cloth (1996), Art Cloth: A Guide to Surface Design on Fabric (2010), and Creative Strength Training: Prompts, Exercises and Stories to Inspire Artistic Genius (2016).

She showcases art processes on YouTube and offers art classes online, including a ten-month Creative Strength Training Immersion program focused on strengthening your personal artistic visual language.

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