Good home makers
My mother was born in Greece just before the second world war. She was orphaned at the age of 5. She had 4 sassy sisters. In the winter they were snow bound and like all good Greek girls they huddled around the open fire crocheting and embroidering items to go into their glory box (their ‘prika’). They were told that one day they would be married and that they would need these items to ‘open a house’ of their own. Their worth was measured by their ability to be good home makers.
But is it art?
Making things was important but it was never seen as art. When my mother came to Australia she brought these embroidered pillow cases, crocheted doilies, bedspreads, curtains with her. As children we did not see any value in them apart from their ability to be used as frisbees, footballs or to make pillow forts.
Beauty in unexpected corners
When I was old enough to know better, I looked at these play things with new and ashamed eyes. These ‘things’ were objects of deeply moving beauty. This image is just a small section of a pillow my mother embroidered as a young girl in the mountains of northern Greece. It is now framed and hanging over my bed. It reminds me daily to not take beauty for granted and to see beauty in everything, no matter how small or seemingly insignificant it might seem.
My mission
It is part of my mission to combine these vintage works and materials into my work somehow and to honor the women maker artists that came before me.
Your mission
Maybe take a look in some of those dark corners or your family home, dust off that little suit case lying in the corner, open those old drawers in the back room and you may find some hidden art that might sing a new song for you and maybe even tell you a little more about you.
