Dorothy Day
Diane L. Cadrain
West Hartford, Connecticut, USA
Artist Statement
Dorothy Day (1897-1980), candidate for sainthood in the Catholic church, pacifist, and advocate for the poor and disenfranchised, lived the kind of life I idealized as a young woman, and she has been one of my heroes for so long that I bought my copy of her biography, The Long Loneliness, new, for a mere $1.25.
This dual portrait of Day is based on photographs of her as a young woman and again in the flowering of her age.
Woman’s Groundbreaking Accomplishment
Dorothy Day, social activist, pacifist, and advocate for the poor, will likely be the first American saint canonized in the twenty-first century.
Techniques
These images are drawn with Derwent Inktense pencils on Pimatex cotton treated with GAC 900. In both the larger and smaller images, I used trapunto to raise and emphasize Day’s silhouette. Both images were then quilted.
Materials
Pimatex cotton, GAC 900, Derwent Inktense pencils.
Photo courtesy Joseph Rubin