V-Day Quilt Project:
The Mendocino Quilt Artists Guild, in support of V-Day Ukiah, designed art quilts reflecting the themes of femininity, sensuality, birth, womanhood, mothering, creativity and, of course, vaginas. Individual quilt artists spent many hours creating personal images, in an effort to bring beauty and attention to an area of the body
that has so often simply been referred to as "down there." Quilting, a traditional female art form used for comfort and warmth, has historically served as a way for women to tell their own stories as well as speak to the issues ot the day. We are indebted to the merchants of downtown Ukiah who agreed to display these quilts.
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From Whence We All Come by Betty Lacy (SEE LARGER)
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Community Dialogue:
The Mendocino Quilt Artists Guild's V-Day Quilt Project has
stimulated much community response to the unusual art works hanging in downtown Ukiah store windows. These two poems recently appeared in the Letters to the Editor section of our local paper (Laura Fogg is a member of the MQAG).
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Ukiah Daily Journal
Thursday, Jan. 17, 2002
A POEM
To the Editor:
WHO ARE YOU KIDDING?
Who do we thank for the sexual
education quilting display?
Yes those intimate details you normally
hide everyday.
The hidden feelings and inner emotions
you suddenly disclose,
to the unsuspecting individuals that
pass by, you think you wrote prose,
But disappointment and bewilderment
cross my mind,
And the lost innocence of femininity,
will be much harder to find,
Boldness and being brazen are shockers
I must admit,
But to the public and to our children
must we submit,
Pornography in the guise of verbal
expression and quilting art
Sit back and let it happen
without comment...
No...that's my part.
I would be open to share additional comments to those that would like
to hear what else I have to say. However, I feel that those comments
should be among consenting adults and in a proper place.
Ron Livesey
Ukiah
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Wednesday, Jan. 23, 2002
POEM RESPONDS TO POEM
To the Editor:
This is in response to Mr. Ron Livesey's poem which appeared in last
Thursday's paper:
I hope to wax a tenth as clever
as Mr. Livesey's artistic endeavor
to condemn what he sees
as pornography
in the quilts spread around
our innocent town.
As an artist I think I created
some works which are far from X-rated.
My intention, it's true,
is to get through to you
and cause you to think
with a different perspective
of a word -- vagina, and be introspective.
Is there anything inherently bad
with that word,
or is it only the message you've heard
that any depiction of this part of me
is uncouth and unfit
for the public to see?
Before you work yourself into a froth,
take a good look --
what's there in the cloth?
A curve? Some lace? A beautiful flower?
A place in the earth
of magnificent power?
A woman? A goddess?
Or maybe a mother?
Or shame and disgust,
somehow or other?
What anyone sees in expression of art
is the view straight through
to their very own heart.
Laura Fogg
Ukiah
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