Bathsheba

Bathsheba, mother of King Solomon and wife of King David. And Bathsheba Everdene character in Far From The Madding Crowd, a Thomas Hardy Novel. Two women in books who share a name but I believe there is a simpatico that goes beyond their name. These two women were young. In fact in 3 religious texts Bathsheba is described as being eight years and eight months when her son Solomon was born. Bear in mind that she lost a son before this and it always bothered me that in art she was depicted as a siren, a temptress in the river making David do wrong things. Bathsheba Everdene was judged so harshly for the foolish playful card that she sent to Boldwood, a later day incel who obsessed and harassed her and she was to blame. Unlike most female characters in Hardy’s books she does get a happy ending with Gabriel Oak. These were two women I identified with, unduly punished and judged for acts of youth. I wanted to give them a voice of their own, a story in cloth.

This quilted hanging is entirely hand pieced using only plant dyed cloth and threads. It was important to me to hand piece this as I felt it not only wove my own thoughts, trauma and story into the quilt but it represented the undervalued idea of “women’s work”. The value of work and art traditionally seen as female or associated with traditional craft forms is often devalued and attempts to down grade it using terms like “just folk art”. Moreover male artists who employ techniques that are traditionally seen as women’s work are exalted as groundbreaking and innovative . I wanted to show that these acts, this “work” should not be gendered and should stand on a level playing field in the creative world. The art of creation in this work is integral to the finished piece it is the physical embodiment of the the hours spent.