Searching through my scrap bags I found some cotton I had letterpress printed in multiple colors from a reduction linoleum block of gears and ears. I worked with the subject previously with one quilt I wasn't entirely happy with and a second quilt that I was. Both feature the concept of joining the mechanical with the organic: gears and ears.
We have devices that help someone physically function, that can help them see and move and hear, like eyeglasses, hearing aids, and prosthetics, but at the same time our technology is changing our social fabric: how we relate to one another and to our environment. What are we becoming as we listen to one another less and less? Those are my thoughts as I continue grappling with this concept.
Here, the pieces are all isolated, as if each person were on a different plane. The free-motion stitching binds them together somehow. Our ears don't come with lids; they are always open. Our minds need to be, too. We don't have to agree, we just have to be willing to have a conversation. And it takes two.
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