“Mother, Goddess,” an Art Quilt

I don’t create art specifically for art calls. I like making whatever my heart desires, without being distracted or interrupted. Also, I don’t really enjoy being limited to certain topics or deadlines. That said, a couple of years ago I came across a call that got me excited. Published only a few short months after my mom’s passing, this call made me think of motherhood, life giving and femininity going back to the dawn of humanity and to the birth of art itself. It made me think of hands printed on cave walls and of fertility deities, especially of one of the earliest known goddesses: Venus of Willendorf. And so, at the very end of 2022 when I found myself in-between projects, I decided to make an exception to my general rule and create a quilt for that specific call: an altar piece of sorts, dedicated to our sacred collective mother, to all mothers, and to my own, recently-departed mom.

Venus of Willendorf

I first saw Venus of Willendorf on a black-and-white slide projected on a wall, in my first-ever art history class all the way back in high school. The teacher told us that this figurine, made some 30,000 years ago, one of the earliest-known human artistic creations, was a fertility deity. In my teenage naivete I assumed that this monumental-looking female was full figured because that was how ancient humans liked their women. I held onto that belief for a couple of decades.

I saw Venus again, this time in full color, when I was pregnant with my first child.  I came out of the shower one day, and suddenly saw her right in front of me, in real life, reflected in the bathroom mirror. Only then did the true meaning of “fertility deity” dawn on me. Venus of Willendorf, like all other early goddess figurines, wasn’t a full-figured woman at all. Instead, she was a representation of one of the greatest wonders of them all: a pregnant woman… 

Thus, she was the perfect embodiment of motherhood, the topic of my quilt.

The Process

Every quilt begins with fabric selection. I dug through my stash, and took out pretty much all the red textiles I had, red being the color of fertility and birth. 

I chose pieces I thought would work together. Then, I set about hand embroidering the ancient Venus on dark red velveteen using a thick black perle cotton embroidery thread. 

After some research on symbols of fertility, I settled on seven: lotus, bee, spiral, frog, dragon, Ankh, and owl. To these I added a diagram of a fertilized human egg. I embroidered them all on golden circles.

After much contemplation, I decided to make a long, narrow quilt, that reminded me of a Chinese scroll. It somehow felt right for an altar-like piece.

It took a while to decide how to arrange all the elements together. Eventually, I placed Venus at the center, in the middle of an elongated oval, itself alluding to femininity. At first, I though I will place the fertility-symbol medallions at the bottom.

As I played with the composition more, however, I realized that I liked them better on the sides. On the top and bottom of the quilt I inserted pieces of fabric with a botanical design that suggested growth and the tree of life.

I stitched everything down, then added a bit more dimension by subtly free-motion stitching a golden yellow line on the edges of the central piece of fabric.

When everything was quilted, I covered my hands with red acrylic paint. This was a modern version of the iron-rich mud with which our ancestors smeared theirs own hands. 

I pressed my hands onto the quilt, leaving prints similar to those left by ancient humans on cave walls. There is something very raw and primary about printing hands, something very personal. A hand print proves you were alive, that you were there. It puts a claim on a thing or a place…

Or maybe it just feels like that to me, because I have a fondness for portraying hands in quilts…

After some additional quilting, I took a step back to assess the overall look. I felt that the piece needed a bit more SPARK. As a final touch, I went over the tree of life design with glittery golden fabric paint. It felt perfect.

“Mother, Goddess” was the first large art quilt I completed in 2023. It is 25″ x 44.5.”

A Fun Twist of Fate

Exactly a year after I finished this artwork, my family and I happened to spend our winter break in Vienna, Austria, the city where Venus of Willendorf resides. Upon arrival, I absolutely HAD to visit Venus at the Natural History Museum. You can probably imagine my excitement when I finally met her in person, after decades of seeing her only in pictures!

In my mind, Venus was a monumental figure, just like she seemed the first time I saw her, projected on my classroom’s wall. In reality, however, she is quite small, only 4.4″ tall. Small yet perfect. I greatly enjoyed spending time with her, carefully looking at her from all angles.

Before I left the museum, I bought a small pendant bearing Venus’s image at the museum’s gift store. I enjoy carrying her around my neck.

*****

In the end, my quilt wasn’t accepted into the exhibition for which I originally made it. However, it was accepted into SAQA NORCAL/NV Region’s “Art Movements in Fiber” exhibition. This show will open at The Gallery at 48 Natoma, 48 Natoma Street, Folsom, CA 95630 on January 31, 2025, and will run until March 27. Then it will tour in different venues in the region until 2027. If you find yourself near this gallery or any of the show’s future venues, make sure to stop by and take a look!