Since 2022, I have been tidying up items I've saved from my artist-mothering life by wrapping them in pieces of wool blanket.
I call them The Mothering Bundles.
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| #33 |
Each bundle has a number so that I can remember what is inside it. Because I forget what is inside a bundle almost as soon as I start stiching it shut.
Number 33 above contains: Two maternity blouses that I embroidered, the small tea cloth that the Rainy River Brownies embroidered for me and gave me when I left my teaching job there to move in with Ned and marry him. Also, several friendship bracelets made by my daughters.
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| in the window, our daughter April's quilt, Spider Silk |
Art is not just a respite or escape, it is a formidable tool for gaining perspective in troubled times. Olivia Laing
I made a list to remind me what is inside each bundle.
So far, there are 38 of them.
It is necessary to abolisth distinction between art and life. Marcel Duchamp 1957
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| the quilt on the wall is called Sunflower Sky |
They are simple things, these bundles
They feel safe and calm.
They invite you to slow down and consider your own life.
They help you to connect to your inner self.
Yet they are as mysterious as the stars in the sky.
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| #20 |
Number 20 above contains the canvas draw-string camping bags that Ned inherited from his cousin Richard. They are labelled with black ink: coffee, flour, white beans, rice, brown sugar, wheat porridge, candy, spices, milk powder and tea.
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| from left to right: Judy Martin's The Beauty of the Green Earth, some Mothering Bundles, and then April Martin's Neptune in Pices, Hourglass in the Sky, Same Same (above) and June Skies (below) Far right is Judy Martin's Lake Full of Stars. |
The images in this post are of the exhibition I had in Toronto this past summer with my artist daughter, April Anne. We both exhibited our hand stitched quilts. The exhibition was entitled Earlier and Later and it was held at the Craft Ontario gallery at 401 Richmond St, Toronto. June 17 - July 25, 2026.
All photos in this post are professional documentation of the exhibition by Jocelyn Reynolds.
You have to follow your work even if it seeems ridiculous. Follow your intuition. Go with your work. Kiki Smith
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