On Thursday, October 28th the First Baptist Church of Ann Arbor held an intimate service for the piece that they commissioned me to create in memorial of their pastor, Stacey Simpson Duke. It's hard to put into words how honored I am to have gotten to create this piece for them. Being hired to design and weave a piece with this level of emotional and personal intention, yet, still have the freedom to create in the way that works best for me was truly a wonderful experience.
I made it through the service without crying too much and was invited to speak. A big thing for me with this piece it's the first of my word-based weaving that is not only a commission but will hang in a permanent home. So far these types of pieces are publicly exhibited but then come back to me. Which has made sense as they relate directly to me and my emotions or how I'm handling (or not handling) something at that time in my life. This was a different level of emotional learning for me. The internet deep dive that I fell into researching Stacey's voice of hope and inclusivity made me feel connected to her without ever having the opportunity to meet her. Once I started learning about her, the ideas and inspiration for this piece came in droves.
They presented this weaving in the church sanctuary at first and towards the end it was taken to be hung so we could witness it's initial hanging as a group. I was so surprised when I walked into the hallway and they had chosen to hang it from the ceiling in the center of the stairwell. Initially we had discussed hanging it against the wall, but when I had spoken about how my double weavings are visible from both sides at a church meeting back in February the way it was to hang changed, I just didn't realize that it had been confirmed. 
I stayed and answered questions and we spoke about Stacey, a number of people told me that she would have loved it and the other popular comment was that I reminded the attendees of Stacey, with my curly hair and large fuchsia cat eye glasses.
The other exciting thing (to me) about the way this weaving is hung is that the time of day will show off the two sides differently. In the evening the side facing the upstairs hall was in full color and the light shining on it lit lit it up but that light also shines through it. So from the back side, with the light shining through you don't see the colors as vibrantly but you do get the outlines of the words and shapes. I had just given a program about my work and was trying to explain that I weave a bit more open than most and when the light comes through my weavings the colors and often designs disappear making it look more like plain fabric. This piece doesn't look "plain" by any means, but that effect was lovely to see in-person. I usually end up with a favorite side of my weavings, but this one is really balanced and I like them both equally, so I'm glad it ended up being hung this way.
The Service Handout
As much as I always say I don't take commissions, lately when I do they really are worth it, I feel confident that I've done a good job for the group the commission is for and I get a lot of joy out of doing it. And that's how they should feel. This piece actually pushed me to put the most amount of color I've ever included in a weaving before and also learn a vector based design program so I could add movement to the words. I'd never have thought when I was in art school that I would ever end up creating pieces that would be hanging in places of worship (or that I would need to use Illustrator/Inkscape). I didn't think it was out of the question either, I just...didn't know where I or my work was going back then.
This weaving has so much going on with it that I did my best to narrow down all the detail shots, I hope whoever likes to look at my blog out there enjoys them at much as I do.
