My friend Terry is part of a blog group consisting of twelve textile artists. They call the group TWELVE BY TWELVE. Every two months or so a member assigns a theme and each member then completes a quilt block on that theme. At the end of the assigned time they each reveal their completed quilt. I am amazed at the diversity and detail that goes into each presentation and completion.
Equally amazing is how they each address a given theme. The current theme is one that I find intriguing because it can be discussed, debated and elaborated on so many different levels. The theme -- Community. The Merriam-Webster On-Line Dictionary's first definition of community is the one that possibly interests me most: "a unified body of individuals,...." The question then becomes "unified by what?" What size is the community? How many communities can an individual be a member?
This has been on my mind more as I work on the local Economic Development Committee and researching the Main Street Project. The community has to be defined and that is what I am struggling with right now in my thoughts as to how such a project should be instituted. There are lots of unifying threads to various factors but I am at a loss as to what the one unifier is for the community we will be defining. It can get so muddled with little or no effort.
Perhaps I will feel more directed when TWELVE BY TWELVE reveal their finished products.
2 comments:
That sounds like a tall order! I'd be interested to hear what you all come up with.
Those quilting projects sound and look like fun. If only I knew how!
This "community" theme has been tricky for me, just in terms of expressing community graphically. Trying to really define a real community sounds even harder! FWIW, some of my pondering of the topic produced the following thought: A group of people does not become a community of people until they begin to make connections between the individuals. That is the direction I am heading in for my quilt. Does that help with your problem?
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