Celebrating Earth Month with the Yearlong Environmental Stitching Project!

As many know, a main focus in my artwork, particularly hooking, is to bring attention to the state of our shared environment. Globally, locally too, it’s not in great shape. Between crazy-ass storms, drought, rising temperatures, air and water pollution, too much trash and waste, etc., etc., we’re suffocating ourselves and other forms of life here on earth. (Though I understand that cockroaches and kudzu are still doing quite well.)

If you’re reading this, I won’t bother preaching to the choir. You’re already aware of the problems. And you’ve probably heard me pontificate or at least share various posts on my social media. A note, my initial career was in environmental regulatory management for industry. I’ve had plenty of time to think about what we put in and on this planet of ours.

More than wool, I create hooked art using different types of old textiles that I find in Savers (my local thrift store) and am gifted. They can include old t-shirts and other clothing, curtains and bedsheets, and so on. It makes me feel good to tell people what the art they’re fondling is made of. Kids especially love to see and touch recycled t-shirt rugs.

In 2020, I spent the WHOLE YEAR hooking and stitching the Ribbon Rug Journal (RRJ). Not familiar with it? You can read about it HERE. Given the nature of 2020, I had plenty of time to sit down every single night to log in that day’s entry. Still I was psyched that I made it to December 31. And really ready to move on from the project given the time and energy it took. It’s since been the subject of an article I wrote for Rug Hooking Magazine and hung in two exhibits.

Fast forward to late 2022. Surprisingly, I was itching for another yearlong endeavor, preferably something with meaning from the get-go. (When I started the RRJ, I had no idea that 2020 would be the “special” year that it became.) I wasn’t looking to hook something every day; that’s what my regular projects are for. Besides, Tom begged me not to have to work on something every night. So, I pondered…

Meanwhile, like most everyone else, during 2020 and 2021, I took online classes and became more interested specifically in hand-stitching. In fact, I incorporated stitching into the RRJ because some things, like letters, were easier to do on the burlap ribbon than hooking. I made a Kawandi quilt and was pretty proud of myself. I also did more sketching with the likes of Sketchbook Revival.

I’m not interested in fine drawing or fussy embroidery, but something more basic. To share a thought, make a memory, the stuff of journaling.

Last year too, while on a hunting trip to Savers, I came across a large, linen curtain panel from Ikea. It’s a beautiful, pale green. Come the end of the year, it was just sitting there, waiting for me to formulate an idea. Which I finally did. The color is a great earth color. And I kept seeing and reading more and more environmental stories. Ah ha! I decided on the Yearlong Environmental Stitching Project (YESP): I’d stitch using an environmental theme throughout 2023.

I’m still not enthused by the title so that might change. And to avoid burnout – my own and the husband’s – I don’t work on it every day. In fact, throughout Sketchbook Revival 2023, the whole thing has sat on the dining room table. Really, it could also be a tablecloth; it’s big enough! As I scan the newspaper and news online each day, I collect stories. Some are pretty horrific, I’m not going to lie. Like the recent report from the UN about humanity’s closing window of opportunity to affect climate change, that our current investment and funding for adaptation to that change are completely insufficient, especially in and for developing countries. Never mind that the US electrical grid is heading for a total meltdown. But there’s good news too. Biden created two new national monuments here in the Southwest. Then there’s the woman in Britain who got so fed up with her town’s lack of recycling that she decoded to take care of it herself. And all kinds of folks joined her. I need those kinds of stories; otherwise the whole project would depress the crap out of me.

I keep all the stories in a file folder and pull one out when I’m ready for a new entry. Having learned from the RRJ, once I finish a stitching, I record it and pertinent info in a written journal. I photograph it too. That way, in January, I won’t wonder what the hell I stitched. Also, the only thing I can purchase for this project is embroidery floss. Everything else has to come from what I already have or am given.

While this won’t be quite as entertaining as the nightly RRJ postings were, I hope that you join me on this yearlong journey. Hey, it’s less than nine months now. Somehow busy-ness and my own winter inertia kept me from getting this all written up, though I have been posting on my Instagram and Facebook accounts all along. Sadly, it’s a constant fight against the cult of busy-ness in this culture. Even when your kids have left home and you don’t have a regular paying job. Also my ability to multitask isn’t as honed as it used to be. (Thank goodness!)

How do you cope with climate change and all that the environment’s throwing at us these days? Any good plans for Earth Day?