Guns Guns Guns Guns Guns Guns Guns Guns Guns Guns Guns

Gun Doily, 2023

embroidery on vintage doily

More than 195,000 Americans have died by firearm suicide since 2010.  A huge part of America's suicide problem is a gun problem.  According to the Giffords website, guns are used in only a small fraction of attempted suicides, but because they are so efficiently lethal, they are responsible for a majority of American suicide deaths.  (Giffords is a nonprofit advocacy group run by former Congresswoman Gabby Giffords, who in 2011 was shot in the head by a gunman who killed 6 people and injured 12 others.)

Suicide attempts are often impulsive acts.  If we can reduce the availability of firearms during moments of crisis, we can reduce suicide rates and save lives.  The NRA says people who want to commit suicide will simply "find another way."   Ignore their lies.  The evidence shows that the vast majority of people who survive suicide attempts do NOT later die from suicide. They DON'T find another way to commit suicide, they find their way out of a crisis and move forward.  When guns are easily available, they don't even get that chance. 

 

More Maps...

A couple more from my recent map series:

Map 4

Map 5

Map 6

Embroidered Photos

 All my love, Wilma

Echoes

Exhibit News...Horizontal Grandeur

Every summer brings the annual "Horizontal Grandeur" exhibit at the Stevens County Historical Society & Museum in Morris, MN.  This annual exhibit is inspired by an essay written by Minnesota poet/writer Bill Holm about the prairie, and only artists who live in states with prairies are eligible to submit for jurying...an unusual but fun requirement that caught my eyes a couple years ago because it didn't seem to include anyone from my home state -- Washington.  We have beautiful prairies in the eastern half of this state, separated from the rocky, wet, western side by a jagged line of dramatic, snow-covered volcanic mountains.  So I began entering to "represent," and here are the two pieces that are off to Minnesota this year to appear in this wonderful, quirky exhibit.

 Ghosts

(paper collage)

Stormcatcher

(embroidered & beaded magazine page)

Work in Progress: "Dear Mary"

Last week the mail brought my most recent eBay purchase -- a batch of small college photos in little photo holders with different hand-written messages inside each one, all addressed to a girl named "Mary."

Dear Mary, It seems I've known you for ages

tho it's really been a short while.

I'll never forget our discussions and

little secrets in homeroom

and home-making class.  Love, Nancy

I'm altering each one with ribbon, embroidery thread, seed beads, ribbon, etc. to add some sort of mask or statement over each face (masks seem to be the essence of the high school/college experience!).  I plan to bind them together accordion-style to make a little artist's book to be called "Dear Mary."

Here are some of them: