Greek Isle: Le Journey

This past several months the news has been full of extraordinary, very disturbing images of failed attempts by masses of individuals and families trying to flee war and poverty, no matter the perils.  The image I can't erase is a beachside on a Greek isle, mounded high with piles of color-filled clothing, sprinkled with life-vests.  Detritus washed ashore from failed attempts to cross out of North Africa to hoped-for security in Europe.

With this imagery in mind I searched my stash of text.  I like text, especially foreign text.  Text that doesn't necessarily mean anything to me, it just looks interesting.  Because of this, I collect text...so far the collection is fairly limited to English, French, Chinese, Japanese and Korean.  It was from this collection that I found a piece...a vintage, rough linen sack with cursive French.

Jumping off the fabric was 'le journey' and I knew where I was going.

Combining African fabrics with this linen, I built an island based on the traditional log cabin quilt block to underscore mankind's most basic and longed for right:  HOME.

detail

Greek Isle: Le Journey 40"x42"