Doors Across Austin

Doors Across Austin
36" x 52"

I have been working on this one for several years now, and finally a venue came that fit it, so I knew it was time to make it. I had read a wonderful book called Thinking in Pictures by Temple Grandlin. She designs cattle gates for a living and is famous for being successful and having autism. As a child, she had a fascination with doors, I remember reading her fascination with sliding doors at the grocery store vividly. It reminded me of my son's fascination with spinning things. As she got older, she would use doors, both literally and figuratively, to help her with transitions in her life. She would walk through a door and picture in her mind the change she was making. It is common to really, really hate changes. Ah, this is my son's experience too. Although because he has ADHD too, he loves novelty. I can never predict when he needs things to stay the same and when he will want novelty. It's exhausting. I made this quilt and dedicate it to him. All the normal developmental challenges that he will face, transitions he will have to make. This year was middle school, and it hasn't been pretty. I used photos of doors from all over Austin, because this is where we live. And, I only selected colorful doors because he likes bright colors (guess he is kind of like me in that respect). If you notice, his path avoids entering most of the doors....

 The door images were taken over a period of about 2 years. I printed them on cotton fabric. My printer is not calibrated, so I had to do a bit of photo manipulation on photoshop. For the most part, the doors are really these colors. The background was made from accordion pleating my hand-dyed fabrics, rolling them like a cinnamon roll, then dipping the edges quickly in wax. Then bleach discharge, and over-dyeing. I tried to soften the images with lots of hand stitching, a mother's love.
And though, this quilt is about him, I think avoiding changes in life is a fairly universal feeling, at least it is for me.