That’s what I told a friend last Friday night at the opening reception for PROTEST: SEE Something, Say Something at Fusionin downtown Albuquerque. (More info HERE.) It’s a good, meaningful show, filled with all kinds of media and messages. Rightly so, with protesting as a theme, they aren’t always pretty.
Sheela Na Gig is a Celtic symbol. I’ll let you read about her and how she was and now is used for protests HERE. (Hooked on cotton monk’s cloth with mostly old t-shirts and a bit of silk sari ribbon; embellished with glass beads.)
As I mentioned on social media after posting pics of my two pieces, I was sorry not to get more and better photographs, but I had to leave early. All Friday I’d battled a migraine; finally, the nausea and fatigue got the best of me. I didn’t feel better till Monday/Tuesday. Nonetheless, I encourage all the local readers to make their way to Fusion one afternoon or evening to see what the (protesting) artwork really looks like and to see it all.
Later every year, I create an angel for the following year. This was THE MIGHTY ONE, THE ANGEL OF 2022. (Hooked with old t-shirts, repurposed gold lamé, and plastic bags.)
TURTLE ISLAND SIEGE by Patricia Halloran (Patricia had some cool things in the FABRIC OF NEW MEXICO SHOW.)
THE HISTORY OF BEARING CHILDREN, text by Jacqueline Murray Long, visual art by Martin Terry
This is a more easily read photo of the text by Jacqueline Murray Loring. Another piece by a different artist accompanied this artwork. Visit the show to see it. (My photo didn’t come out.)
If you’re looking for a thought-provoking show, one that will let you see the outrage, the anger about so many things going on in our world today, come see the work by artists who are protesting at Fusion in Albuquerque. Maybe we all need to start protesting.
Please Join Us For The Two Moons Exhibit Series Opening Reception
Friday, October 7, 5:30 pm to 8 pm
at FUSION 700-708 1st St., NW – Downtown ABQ
Part of the Two Moons exhibit series curated by artist Martin Terry, this contemporary exhibition – PROTEST, See Something, Say Something – will focus on a select group of artists whose works speak to a social consciousness. Included are fiber arts, sculpture, painting, graphite, mixed media, written word, video, song, and other new and innovative means of communicating social commentary. Work in a wide range of styles matches the breadth of subjects addressed, including racism, sexism, economic inequality, climate change, violence, political upheaval, war, disease, and hatred.
High on Hooking is regularly available to teach individuals and groups in the Albuquerque-Santa Fe area. Currently we’ve got workshops scheduled in early and late September at two different events.
Held in conjunction with Wildlife West Nature Park’s Harvest Festival in Edgewood. There will be vendors, workshops, live animals, and demonstrations all weekend.
Intro to Punch Needle Rug Hooking
Saturday, September 3, 2:00 – 5:00 PM
Find class info HEREor contact Laura directly.
Now being held in Santa Fe at the County Fairgrounds. There will be: vendors of all types, artists, a “fiber critter corner,” auctions, demonstrations, hands-on activities for kids and adults, food vendors, and music. NOTE: Workshops are held Thursday and Friday, September 29 and 30.
Intro to Rug Hooking
Thursday, September 29, 9:00 AM – 12:00 PM
Find class info HEREor contact Laura directly.
Intro to Punch Needle Rug Hooking
Thursday, September 29, 200 – 5:00 PM
Find class info HEREor contact Laura directly.
High on Hooking is happy to teach in other locations, on Zoom, or even in our/your home. Just give a yell and tell us what you’re interested in. Topics include:
– Intro to Punch Needle Rug Hooking – Introduction to Rug Hooking – Not So Traditional – Hooking With and Beyond the Wool – using materials besides wool strips – Hooking With T-Shirts – Build a Baby Boucherouite – create a little mat from old textiles
Keep an eye on our Calendarpage for our teaching schedule and upcoming events.
Claire Nolan, Shakerag Workshops studio assistant and student extraordinaire in class learned how to hook and punch with High on Hooking in June. Bravo, Claire! Now everyone be like Claire and take a rug hooking workshop.
“Holes” – mostly repurposed textiles hand-hooked on monk’s cloth; 68″x33″x0.75″
The Fabric of New Mexico exhibit opens Friday, July 1 at Fusion in downtown Albuquerque. All are cordially invited to the opening reception, 5:30-8:00 p.m.
This exhibit stretches the limits of fiber art to celebrate the full range of innovative creativity in fabric, including quilting, macramé, embroidery, rug hooking, and work with plastics, paper, metal, and wire. Curated by artist Martin Terry, the show includes work by twenty New Mexico artists including Sara Miller, Larry Schulte, Betty Busby and Judith Roderick.
More information about Fusion can be found HERE. Also, the gallery will be open for the Summer Sundays Markets, Last Fridays (of each month), theater events, and concerts. See EVENTS. If you can’t make it to the gallery any of those days, please contact High on Hooking, and we can have the gallery opened up for a private viewing.
Note: Parking is available just across the street in the city parking lot.
At High on Hooking we try to remember the Earth every day, not just on Earth Day. It’s not difficult, really. Since we moved to New Mexico almost seven years ago (my mind is blown every time I think of that!), the summer temperatures and number of days above 100 degrees F have steadily increased. Hell, when we made our plans to relocate to the high desert from Massachusetts, average summer temperatures here were less than 95! And while we were aware of the drought, no one thought that it would go on this long. Now it’s considered a megadrought, the worst in 1200 years! On my walks in the Bosque, I’ve witnessed the Rio Grande dribble itself into a Rio “Pequeño.” If I didn’t worry about the mud and the potentially toxic crap in the mud, I might venture to walk across it.
Between smog and wild weather and drought and fires, I understand why young folks have anxiety about their future. My own kid is pretty cynical and depressed about it all. Yesterday’s headline in the Boston Globe certainly didn’t help my own mood: “As Earth’s temperature rises, Massachusetts residents’ sense of urgency on climate change declines.” We’re all tired of the doom and gloom, but I think the most terrible thing is that we seem to have lost hope. The past couple of months have demonstrated Americans’ inability to give up our gas-guzzling ways. A couple of weeks ago, city councilors in Albuquerque rolled back a single use plastic bag ban that had barely been in play since the mayor had put it on hold during much of the pandemic. They couldn’t even wait till June for the study to determine if it was effective was completed. Now, in addition to dirty, used masks, I’ve started seeing plastic bags again on roadsides and caught up in trees. Shit, if we can’t even get the mostly surface level stuff right, if we’re so short-sighted about garbage in our streets, how can we ever be serious about righting our sinking Earth, our only home?
Clearly, the adults of the world don’t care much about what we’re leaving for our kids. Just look at how so many treat Greta Thurnberg of Sweden.
Others diminish Greta Thunberg’s work because of her age. Ever since Greta first made headlines a few years ago and she delivered her now-famous “How dare you” speech, her age has been leveraged against her words. As Thunberg points out in her speech, her detractors are right in a sense. Thunberg shouldn’t have to stand before world leaders, telling them the obvious, which is that we’re being led directly into the jaws of the greatest threat to humanity we have ever known. Climate change.
It’s shameful that Thunberg has to do what she does, but the adults of the world are failing to ensure a future for the next generation. So it’s up to people like Thunberg to try to do something to save the world that the youth will inherit.
Part of the reason she inspires such rage, of course, is blindingly obvious. Climate change is terrifying. The Amazon is burning. So too is the Savannah. Parts of the Arctic are on fire. Sea levels are rising. There are more vicious storms and wildfires and droughts and floods. Denial is easier than confronting the terrifying truth.
Laura Ingraham, the Fox News host, called Ms. Thunberg’s United Nations speech “chilling” on her Monday night show, and ran a segment about how climate change “hysteria” is changing American youth.
Climate change has been caused by human activity. And no one likes being told that their actions have contributed to a freaking calamity, but at some point, we have to own up to it and make it so that human and other life can go on. So that the lives of our kids and their kids can go on. That’s what being an adult is about, isn’t it?
Thunberg has already had a demonstrated impact on how her generation views the climate crisis, with one recent survey showing that nearly 70 percent of people under the age of 18 believe that climate change is a global emergency compared with 58 percent of people over the age of 60. …Thunberg isn’t daunted by her status. The way she sees it, the demonization is a diversion from clmate science, to which skeptics have few answers.
We try to use mostly recycled or reclaimed materials in the art at High on Hooking every day, not just on Earth Day. But we can’t always resist virgin wool yarns like in that sunflower.
At High on Hooking, I know that I need to do more to care for my and our environment: take shorter showers; buy way less crap; mend more; drive my little Honda Fit rather than the CRV when I’m cruising around Albuquerque; and really be more aware of how my actions affect it all. We can’t buy our way out of this problem. We have to change. In my art, I already already work hard to hook with materials that others might just discard. But it’s not enough. If I can’t adjust what I do, how can I expect others to do anything?
Earth Day 2022 is Friday. Will you mark the day as crucial for our home?
