EQUALI-TEA: SUFFRAGIST TEA COZIES IN REDWORK... What does that mean? What is this about? Well, I am about to tell you. Over the course of the coming weeks, I will be blogging about this project of mine. Explaining the idea, the purpose, the funding, the construction, the exhibition, and, yes, the EMBROIDERY! So grab your favorite tea, or other beverage of choice, while I let you into my world.
To spare you from too much back story, let's just say I always wanted to be a singer, so when that didn't work out I was kind of at a loss. I switched my major to history, & figured out ways to add my singing & interest in women's history into ALL of my history jobs. I even taught myself to embroider while wait for tours to start. Eventually I brought my love of music & women's history into my embroidery, creating portraits of favorite musicians, and historical figures, especially suffragists. Then in 2017-ish I heard about a call for art HerFlag2020 from artist Marilyn Artus & applied. It was a long shot, very long. Crazy talented, professional artists were applying. I lost out to the amazingly talented Indira Cessarine.
Since I had put so much thought into this idea, I thought I would adjust it & just do it anyway, but maybe on a smaller scale. Enter my local arts council, LARAC, of which I have been a member for a few years. They gave me my first ever show as an artist, a four person show in the local gallery. (There are a series of posts on my other blog if you are interested.) A friend/colleague of mine had just finished her own grant project & I was inspired. (You can visit her over at The Victorian Archivist over on Wordpress.)
To spare you from too much back story, let's just say I always wanted to be a singer, so when that didn't work out I was kind of at a loss. I switched my major to history, & figured out ways to add my singing & interest in women's history into ALL of my history jobs. I even taught myself to embroider while wait for tours to start. Eventually I brought my love of music & women's history into my embroidery, creating portraits of favorite musicians, and historical figures, especially suffragists. Then in 2017-ish I heard about a call for art HerFlag2020 from artist Marilyn Artus & applied. It was a long shot, very long. Crazy talented, professional artists were applying. I lost out to the amazingly talented Indira Cessarine.
Since I had put so much thought into this idea, I thought I would adjust it & just do it anyway, but maybe on a smaller scale. Enter my local arts council, LARAC, of which I have been a member for a few years. They gave me my first ever show as an artist, a four person show in the local gallery. (There are a series of posts on my other blog if you are interested.) A friend/colleague of mine had just finished her own grant project & I was inspired. (You can visit her over at The Victorian Archivist over on Wordpress.)
& MY PROJECT WAS SELECTED!
I was fairly confident in my application, unlike the HerFlag application BUT, I was still surprised & so excited to be chosen for a 2020 Individual Artist Grant funded by the New York State Council on the Arts, a state agency Decentralization Program with the support Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Legislature; administered by the Lower Adirondack Regional Arts Council. Thank you NYSCA!
Prototype redwork tea cozy I made of Mary S. Anthony. The tea cozy is now in the private collection of HerFlag artist Marilyn Artus. (Instagram @HerFlag2020)
I am essentially creating 40 tea cozies, each hand embroidered with a portrait of a New York State suffragist, with an emphasis on Upstate NY. I also wanted to include as many women of color as I could find reference portraits for. Some of these women are national figures we are familiar with in 2020. But many were active in state, regional & local suffrage clubs, and we never learned their names. This project means to bring some of those women out of the shadows, & into the light.
Forward out of Darkness,
Leave Behind the Night.
Forward Out of Error,
Forward Into Light.
Leave Behind the Night.
Forward Out of Error,
Forward Into Light.
Portrait pillow I hand embroidered of suffragist Inez Milholland Boissevain (1886-1916). She & her suffragist sister Vida summered in the Adirondacks as children. Inez in buried in the Lewis Cemetery, Essex County, NY.
More to come. Follow me on Instagram (@aprilsongstress) or Facebook for additional updates & images.
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