What I Decided NOT to Weave in NYC this Year

During my week in NYC this year, I decided to haul around my billedvev and weave in the ends. You can see progress during a trip from Grand Central Station to New Haven, and the trip back, plus watching a portion of the Oscars.  See? It will get done eventually, right?

Originally, I had a “re-make” project in mind for this trip. When we were in NYC in 2017, it was the weekend of Donald Trump’s inauguration. During those days I wound my way through all of the security surrounding Trump Tower, and cheered on the protesters. I brought my small pipe loom and wove a caricature.

It hung in my studio, and I brought it to my billedvev workshops, because I thought the framing worked well (it’s mounted on a piece of wool I wove in Norway many years ago). The legend on the bottom of the frame, “Say no to the Cheetoh,” references a wonderful poster I saw at the Women’s March in Minneapolis in January 2017.

Last fall, as I was pulling out various tapestry examples from my bag for a workshop in Iowa, I thought, “No.” I just didn’t want to take it out, to share it, to look at Donald Trump’s image again. In addition to his bombastic, mean, and ill-tempered tweets, and co-opting our country’s foreign policy for his personal gain (which apparently is OK if he is convinced it is for our own good), his administration continues to weaken environmental agencies and regulations. Just a start…

So, good-bye.

My idea was to take out the perfectly good yarn depicting the president I would rather not have in office, and reweave the weft into a new image.

I showed the photo above to my friend Connie LaTendresse, who noted that it still looks like Trump, deconstructed, with a swoop of yellow hair. 

Ultimately, I decided not to continue my transformation idea (the word impeach was going to be included in an abstract design). I’m moving forward with positive tapestries, and positive energy for the upcoming election.