Thank you to Ryan Standfest for inviting me to participate in another Detroit Sequential project: The Sunday Comics, which take the full page style of old time "Sunday funnies!"  The 16 x 22 in. full page format was too large for me to be able to stitch something in time.  It required a family collaboration!

I found our album of snapshots of the 1996 Olympic Torch Relay that came through Detroit in early June of 1996.  Robert D'Aoust, my husband, scanned them in for me.  I created a storyboard of the images with some text and handed it off to Claire D'Aoust, our daughter, who created the artwork that told the story of how we and our friends and neighbors greeted the Torchbearer that morning. 

It is particularly fitting to recall that event in light of the postponement of the Summer Olympics to 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Please click on the link to see the comic set into The Sunday Comics and to see what other Detroit artists have produced.  You can also sign up to receive the additional comics as they are published online.  Enjoy!

http://rotlandpress.com/detroit-sequential-sunday


 

I also created a work for a project called 25 Million Stitches.  This project was originated by a group of women in Sacramento, CA to remind us of the 25 million refugees in the world.  Artists were asked to stitch a linen or muslin panel 15 x 35 in and to create a design of their choice but to count the stitches in it so that number could be added until they reached 25 million.

Mine is called 8,000 Stitches.  Each star represents a community be it a family, village, city, state, or country.  As people leave their communities, the communities fall apart.

Finally, as Father's Day approaches, I think of the Fathers who have died as a result of violence, particularly Fathers whose skin color made them vulnerable just being in our harsh and judgmental world.  I also think of the young men who never had the opportunity to become fathers simply because someone pre-judged them based on the color of their skin; of the young men who died because they desired companionship with someone of the same sex, or who have been denied the rights to be a father by adoption because of their sexual preference; or the young transgender individuals who identify as males but are ostracized and denied human compassion because of their identity.  We are one species.  We need more compassion for one another.   Please hold all these human beings in your heart with compassion on Father's Day as I hold you in mine.