Domestic Armor 67"h x 46"w)
Domestic Armor was inspired by a Japanese kesa*. In ancient Japan, people would donate silk kimonos to the monasteries. These would be cut and sewn to make patchwork garments called kesas. I liked the idea of a community combining used fabrics into one cloth. Over several years, I saved potholders, aprons and towels from many different garage sales; I sewed together the protection from many different women. Groups of women often come together to help each other, to provide emotional support. Of course, you must believe in and live by the values of this group. If you outgrow the values of your group, their emotional reinforcement can start to seem rather heavy, like the weighty protection of this armor.
*My thanks to Dianne Yound, who emailed me long ago to tell me that the kesa design is said to have been by Buddha himself and based on the layout of rice fields, and that I was misspelling it (kesa, not kasa).
