Home of BOO! Naptown Purls and The Village

The Village Progress update

Three of thirteen panels are finished. They look great, and have paved the way for the other ten. Two panels are getting latch hook composition outlines done by friends, and I’m doing the third! By October, The Village will be almost half way done!

In the meantime, there will be:

Pompom parties at SPARK on the Circle, Tube Factory Artspace, and various places around town. Follow #andknits on Instagram to see when these things are happening.

Library events where we attach pompoms to the panels. A schedule for events will be posted in June.

Other fiber arts components are being attached to the finished panels. Crocheted and knit flowers are now part of the composition too.

If you would like your group to participate in these future activities, please contact me at mjbayliss62@gmail.com

Gratitude

So many people have assisted in the birth of The Village over these past few months. It began when Julie Xiao and Shauta Marsh of Big Car Collaborative invited me to do a community piece for the first weekend in November. The Taylor Swift concert was happening that weekend, and at first I was really hesitant to tackle it. I’m not a Swiftie, and my health was still unpredictable. I did some research on Swift’s iconography and decided there was plenty there I could work with. I decided on a composition that uses symbols that honor the Goddess in her myriad forms. Butterflies and snakes are signify rebirth, healing, transformation and wisdom. Guitars have a feminine shape, heart hands are a contemporary cultural symbol that brings to mind the solidarity of community. This piece is dedicated to the women of Indianapolis who keep art alive.

Stephanie Robertson, former chair of Ivy Tech Art Department and Anya Aslanova of Arts for Learning Indiana where hugely encouraging. They brought The Village into their organizations in the form of PomPom Parties and supplied volunteers who helped during the Taylor Swift weekend. Without their involvement, this piece wouldn’t have the life it does.

Finally, Jill Edwards, head of event scheduling for Indianapolis Public Libraries, placed me in various libraries around Indy. Through these events, I’ve met so many wonderful people, and consequently developed a piece of Social Practice Art that wildly exceeds my expectations.

What makes this piece ART are the interactions people have while working on the project. Huge joy has been the driving force of this piece. When people see the 500+ name tags on the back of the panels, they often laugh in surprise. They’re moved by the quantity and messages on the tags. When we work together on this, it’s fun! The activity is low stakes, and people of all ages, want to add to it. It reminds me of finding new friends on the playground. The interactions are fleeting but real. The joy we share is real. and lots of small steps are creating something beautiful.

Seana is one of the people I met at E. 38th Street Library, and she wrote this poem about her experience. I want to share it with you with her permission: