“TONY” English name “Waagosh/Fox” Ojibwe name 2019
Fabric and Thread.
49”H x 62”W. 125cmH x 158cmW
(Artist’s Husband)
This portrait is about my husbands life work as an educator and an activist preserving his language and culture for generations to come. The goldfinches are flying out of his mouth as he bestows these gifts to our son. This portrait took about 5 full days just to sew it. When I’d finished, and had laid it flat on my kitchen table to admire it, I quickly realized that it would not lay flat. It had ripples that created circles in the center of the portrait. At the time, I’d intended to stretch my portraits over a frame like a canvas…but this one would not lay flat…I cried not knowing enough about sewing to know what I’d done wrong or how in the world I was going to fix it. I felt completely incompetent. I walked away from it in a panic hopeful that if I just took some time to breathe that I’d figure it out. I went to bed, couldn’t sleep, came back out in the middle of the night and spread it out in front of me again.
I’d always felt like these portraits weren’t mine, that I was just the vessel from which they came. Then suddenly when I looked at this piece, and the unintended circular movement that had shown up unexpectedly, they looked like ripples in a pond. That is exactly the nature of my husband’s life’s work. To effect change, one small movement that steadily grows and expands exponentially over time. I don’t know how it got there, but it absolutely belonged there. A sacred symbol for many cultures. The circle, an ancient and universal symbol for wholeness and unity.