Textile Arts as Womens Therapy

Dr. Ann Collier is a Faculty Research Fellow in the Psychology Department at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire. She has a contract with Jessica Kingsley Publishers to write a book entitled Weaving Lives Back Together: How and Why to Use Textile Arts and Handcrafts in Therapy with Women. Ann found my work on the internet and was intrigued by my artist statement in which I state that my quilts serve as metaphors for my inner world and the human condition. Ann has been researching how women use textile arts in their daily lives to cope with life. I had lots to say about how my quilts helped me cope with my mothers alzheimers and subsequent death, the loss of my job, and even body image at an earlier point in my life. Ann will be using her interview with me, as well as two images of my work, in her book. One of these images is from the body image series I worked on in my early days as a quilt artist. This piece is titled Femmes FAT-ales (2003), and is a celebration of women in all shapes, sizes and colours.

The other image chosen to appear in Anns book is Standing Still, a piece I made in early 2008 after leaving my day job. You have probably seen this one before!

Standing Still (and Act 3) are currently on display at the Grand National Quilt Show at the Joseph Schneider Haus Museum in Kitchener, Ontario until September 13, 2011. Standing Still is also one of 3 of my quilts included in the book 500 Art Quilts and was juried into Art Quilts at the Chandler at the Chandler Museum of Art, Chandler, Arizona in 2008.

Ann has a website called Dr. Shrinks Fibers. She is conducting her second research study into the role of handcrafts in womens lives. If you would like to help with this project, please visit her site, click on Research and follow instructions to fill out her survey. Nice for us textile enthusiasts to support research that is about us!