The Sacrifice Of Gaza Tapestry

The Sacrifice Of Gaza Tapestry, 2020, hand-stitched cotton thread on dishtowel, 15.5'' x 25''

                                             

The Sacrifice Of Gaza Tapestry is stitched in its entirety in my mosaic style, and each medium-sized square shape has an average of twelve stitches. My three-dimensional mosaic piece The Sacrifice of Gaza (2009), is the direct progenitor of this tapestry. With an obvious reference to War Rugs, the background portrays fighter jets, bombs, surveillance cameras, guns, bullets, and flash grenades. The 'Sacrifice' of the title refers to a world that has turned its back on Gaza, and specifically to Western complicity. In that way, the bombs and the other machines of war represent me, dropped in my name while the mainstream media, by its omission, tells me it doesn’t matter. The world’s power system remains silent and complicit while Israel bombs Gaza anytime it feels like it, including in the summer of 2020, with constant bombardment during a world pandemic. I think of 2014 when the explosive power that Israel fired on Gaza by land, sea, and air far surpassed one of the atomic bombs the United States dropped on Japan in August 1945. Over 550 children were killed during that summer of massacre. 

And there's the Great March of Return, which began on March 30, 2018. The demands were simple: An end to the now 12-year siege on Gaza, and the ability for refugees, which make up more than 70% of Gaza’s population, to be allowed to return to their homes. Over the course of one year, scores of Gazans, mostly young men, were shot and killed, or severely injured, by Israeli snipers stationed along Gaza’s eastern border with Israel. On just one day, May 14, 2018, more than 1,300 protesters were shot by the Israeli army. Sixty people were killed. The Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza has placed the death toll as of March 29, 2019 at 266, including 50 children, three medics, and two journalists. Doctors Without Borders called it “unacceptable and inhuman” violence by the Israeli army against Palestinian protesters. This is what United Nations Special Rapporteur Michael Link wrote about Gaza: “There is no comparable situation in the world...where a substantial population has endured such a permanent lockdown, largely unable to travel or trade, and controlled by an occupying power in breach of its solemn international human rights and humanitarian obligations.”

https://www.counterpunch.org/2018/06/04/sacrificing-gaza-the-great-march-of-zionist-hypocrisy/

 

Ode To Golden

"Ode To Golden"  2014

 For we are the ocean and the waves, the darkness and the light -  Tony Parsons                                                 

In "Ode to Golden", I took an image of a Panamanian golden frog and overlaid it with an Islamic geometric design, using fill stitch.This frog is critically endangered primarily by a fungal skin disease; pollution and habitat loss are also factors. With line stitch I surrounded the frog with a floral pattern covered with circles that represent both its eggs and the disease that threatens it. 

To learn more-   http://amphibianrescue.org/tag/project-golden-frog/

  

In a broad sense the Islamic motif on the frog represents our human impact on and interdependence with the natural world. Specifically these two very disparate ideas- "Islamic Culture" and "Golden Frog" -have both been assailed in their own way.

Besides the frog, the "Golden" in the title refers to the Golden Rule and the idea of golden threads. The Golden Rule calls for compassionate empathy of the "other". 'Golden threads' is a concept I gleaned from Gaia theory that refers to the soul energy that connects all beings on our one living planet. I like this metaphor because I stitched this piece with actual golden colored threads.

It is in the spirit of the Golden Rule and the golden threads that I dedicate this piece to the people of Gaza, especially to the children. They are undergoing unimaginable suffering as the Israeli Occupation Force continues it's third, and by far most devastating, bombing of the Gaza Strip in six years. As I write this, an estimated 2,069 Palestinians in Gaza have been killed, including 553 children. Over 10,500 people have been injured, including 3,106 children. 1800 children have been made orphans.

I have barely touched on this tragedy. To learn more please go to http://savegazaproject.org/ 

Mosaic Work

The Sacrifice of Gaza, 2010, hand cut glass, paper pulp, wood, 20"x10"x26"

I had started this piece in Taos, and when I started working on it again in Portland it was just an unfinished paper pulp deer. Previously I'd place different objects on its back, then I'd change my mind and saw them off again. It reminds me of how in flux I was at the time with my work, how dissatisfied I was and how much I would work to try to make it right, including making big structural changes.

By the time I began creating it as a mosaic piece, I had learned a lot of the technique through trial, error, and finally a class that I took at PNCA (and where I made Glass Giraffe). I found a separate space from my apartment that I rented temporarily and worked on it diligently for six months. It was incredibly precise and focused work, hand cutting small tiles to specific angles and placing Tham very close together, but I had a natural feel for it and the process was familiar and enjoyable to me.
  
I started working on it in 2008 and I planned to just make a straightforward mosaic piece. I was well into the design when Israel began operation 'Cast Lead', its three-week bombing campaign of Gaza. I had gradually been learning about Israel's settler colonial project outside of the mainstream media's propaganda, and Palestine had captured my imagination and my heart. I decided to make the piece about Gaza in reaction to the bombardment and ongoing siege. It was easy in terms of the image itself: the deer as a sacrificial creature and the common geometric design that I'd begun is found in Islamic art. Ancient and stunning mosaics have a large presence in Palestine and Gaza as well. I added the Arabic word for Gaza on the deer's head and a rocket image on its back. 


In 2008 the US gave Israel 8.5 million in tax dollars a day. Now it's closer to 11 million. As Israel, directly supported by US tax dollars, continues its illegal and inhuman siege, including bombardments, of Gaza, The Sacrifice of Gaza remains even more relevant today.

The Sacrifice of Gaza, detail

Glass Giraffe
hand cut fused glass, cast glass, paper pulp
18" x 3" x 11"
2008

I made Glass Giraffe in a class that I took at Pacific Northwest College of Art (PNCA) in 2008 when I lived in Portland. I wanted to learn some techniques for making glass tile mosaics and the class also covered intro to kiln glass and casting. I made the paper pulp body, then applied and grouted the fused glass tiles that I made using a kiln. The head and legs are cast glass, which is a very challenging process because it involves precise calculations and it was ambitious for my first time trying it even though I didn't know it before I started! 

This piece fits in very well with the themes of this show - giraffes are endangered species, and I like the material and title, 'glass' that adds to the idea of fragility. It's also a transition piece that was the result of searching for new ways to work and materials to work with. I remember that making it was a joy, and that I was very motivated and inspired.

Derceto
paper pulp, hand-cut glass, wood
13" x 3" x 2"
2008

Pug
paper pulp, hand cut glass
8" x 4" x 13"
2008

Nemesis
paper pulp, hand cut glass, wood
17" x 6" x 4"
2008