Jody Williams

My work is an extension of my life, my feelings, my hopes, my dreams and my fears. I enjoy experimenting with hand painted, dyed and printed fabrics and enjoy the freedom that comes from creating. Art quilts are my canvas. I employ raw edge applique in my pieces to create the images that compel me to keep on working in this wonderful fiber medium.

My father, who was a young teenager at the time, was drafted post WWII to clear fields in southern Denmark of land mines. Growing up I heard the stories of the difficulty disarming mines in crumbling wooden casings and of the accidental detonations that routinely occurred. My father still carries the shrapnel in his back from a mine explosion. After clearing a field, the young recruits would have to link arms and walk across the field to assure the farmer that it was safe to begin cultivation again.

When I started researching Jody William’s work into banning and clearing landmines, it touched a chord. The images I found online of survivors of landmines, many of whom were children with badly mutilated limbs, was profoundly disturbing. The danger symbol of a skull and crossbones seemed to be a universal warning to stay away from an area which may still have hidden mines. It was this symbol that I chose to illustrate the work of Nobel Peace Prize Winner, Jody Williams.

I applaud Jody Williams, Nobel Laureate, American political activist, for her efforts to outlaw landmines, her defense of human rights, especially women’s rights, and her promotion of peace.

painted fabric, commercial cottons, paint, mini cd’s