Women’s Work as Artists and Writers

To my  maternal  grandmother, whose h ome had  an entire wall of colorful yarn skeins and rooms adorned with her weavings. To my paternal grandfather who wrote me letters with collage pieces mixed in among the words and who sanded and stained pieces of driftwood until they shone to perfection at his woodworking bench. To my maternal grandfather who, despite  his own  claims of clum siness, managed to create vivid, mini  Chinese opera stage sets upon which we made tiny puppets dance and sing.  To my mother who se  quilts teach me about that perfect balance between precision and flow, whose Amish- style blankets  always leave one imperfect piece, like life itself. To my father,  who sings and strums the guitar and  who coaxes native  plants to flourish among roses  and a plum tree; to  my friend  Marcia, wh ose whimsical garden additions —  a curled trellis  here, a wooden duck head there — make  wander ing   among  the vegetabl e  beds a delight. To my father-in- law who rises before th

Women’s Work has been first published in Adanna Literary Magazine in issue number ten in October 2020.  “Hope” is the thing with feathers - That perches in the soul - And sings the tune without the words - And never stops - at all –                                      Emily Dickenson   As I was listening casually to NPR during a drive, a story caught my attention. It was about an elderly woman named Rita whose unfinished quilt had shown up in an estate sale. She’d passed away in her nineties without completing it. A woman artist who enjoys completing unfinished work purchased it. It was comprised of each state, with the state flag, symbol and bird. Only in its beginning stages, the artist knew that the quilt would require a community of women to help finish it. Around the country, women responded to her invitation, signed on to the project, and worked together until it was completed. The artist spoke about how women’s projects so often remain unknown, whether they be art