Creative Process: the Visionary & Artivism

Summer is Visionary season, a time to reflect on and reflect back truth, to oneself and to others. A great vehicle for that is creativity in all its forms.

The images above and below are part of my hand-sewn contribution to a community arts project that I participated in with thousands of other Americans during the pandemic, Ann Morton’s The Violet Protest.

It was an extremely isolating and divisive time then and is perhaps more so in this election season. Yet there’s more than a glimmer of hope in coming together with other makers to use creativity in DIY artivism, to speak truth to power in a nonviolent way.

We were invited to make square ‘flags,’ using equal parts blue and red in a dynamic balance. ‘Blue’ and ‘red’ are overly simplistic labels for our political leanings and identities, but their colors together make purple. And ‘violet’ is only one crucial letter away from ‘violent’.

These flags are based in traditional home crafts of women: quilting, weaving, sewing, felt work, knitting, crocheting, embroidery, etc. There’s a deep history of American women using literal and metaphorical soft power to express themselves and organize in subtle but incisive ways.

These thousands of flags were displayed together and then sent in packets to every U.S. Congress member, so they would hear from both their constituents and people from other states to reflect how common and strong the desire is for us to transcend harmful polarization, dehumanization, and political deadlocks.

This Visionary season, I’m working on Ann Morton’s next community arts project Toward 2050, a climate change installation piece. My two sisters and I are all participating. You can still sign up!