Oh Meg! I work at a museum, with artists, and what a treasure Krista is--she's so lucid and thoughtful and verbal about her process and her work and this project. What a radical joy to have you both together.
This conversation is making me think of Tiya Miles new book, All That She Carried, which is materially about a sack that an enslaved woman named Rose filled with supplies when her daughter, Ashley, was sold away from her. It's also about stories that are passed down in families and the historical method of tracing enslaved people's stories.
Firstly, not fair publishing this early in the morning because I’ll read it right away and then I will think and feel stuff and it takes a while before everything settles into words because thoughts and feelings are just big, illegible blobs 😁
I LOVE Philly and nowhere more than South Philly! I read every word slowly and repeatedly, feeling and smelling the air around Sarcones (bakery, the deli closed 😢), and Anthony’s across, down the street, that cheese shop, the butcher, the reddish benches along Ninth to Genos/Pats and to that Dunks a block or two or three away... the playground with the fence, the row house alleyways a block in... I was last there before the world shut down and hardly a week goes by that I don’t replay my last time walking there. This interview brought it all back in overwhelming waves... I need to visit soon...
I walked around the block with my 4yr old granddaughter Sunday and one of my neighbors put in a rock bed in her garden where the kids want to search for and take the perfect rock home. There were conversations (and me returning rocks later) but I’ve gotten them convinced that the most valuable, powerful rocks in that bed are the smallest, most ordinary-looking ones that don’t need to show off and they are also the most powerful when they are on the rock garden. Our job is to identify them and witness them.. (yeah, I know ... but still... right?) Kinda like that scene in Indiana Jones where the Holy Grail is a plain wooden cup... apparently grandparenthood is full of holding ordinary treasures — sticks, rocks, trash —that have stories attached that give them magic ... everything comes from somewhere and is destined for other things ...
I’ve rattled on far too long... thanks for letting me feel a little less odd in a world too obsessed with neatness and order...
These comments brought tears to my eyes. I'm truly so blown away. As a creator I can't think of anything more satisfying than having people "get it." I wanted parents to feel "seen." And now I feel so seen. It's wonderful. Thank you again to Meg from the bottom of my heart.
I love everything about this! You are both brilliant, thanks for sharing this with us.
Art begets art! What a fantastic first thing to read this morning. Grateful for the moms, grateful for the artists and in awe of those who are both!
We have so many many collections like this at home. This will remind me how much they are really treasures when I am frustrated by all the trash.
Also, you know March 19th, the last day of the exhibition, is Mother's Day (technically, "Mothering Sunday") here in England?
Oh Meg! I work at a museum, with artists, and what a treasure Krista is--she's so lucid and thoughtful and verbal about her process and her work and this project. What a radical joy to have you both together.
This conversation is making me think of Tiya Miles new book, All That She Carried, which is materially about a sack that an enslaved woman named Rose filled with supplies when her daughter, Ashley, was sold away from her. It's also about stories that are passed down in families and the historical method of tracing enslaved people's stories.
Firstly, not fair publishing this early in the morning because I’ll read it right away and then I will think and feel stuff and it takes a while before everything settles into words because thoughts and feelings are just big, illegible blobs 😁
I LOVE Philly and nowhere more than South Philly! I read every word slowly and repeatedly, feeling and smelling the air around Sarcones (bakery, the deli closed 😢), and Anthony’s across, down the street, that cheese shop, the butcher, the reddish benches along Ninth to Genos/Pats and to that Dunks a block or two or three away... the playground with the fence, the row house alleyways a block in... I was last there before the world shut down and hardly a week goes by that I don’t replay my last time walking there. This interview brought it all back in overwhelming waves... I need to visit soon...
I walked around the block with my 4yr old granddaughter Sunday and one of my neighbors put in a rock bed in her garden where the kids want to search for and take the perfect rock home. There were conversations (and me returning rocks later) but I’ve gotten them convinced that the most valuable, powerful rocks in that bed are the smallest, most ordinary-looking ones that don’t need to show off and they are also the most powerful when they are on the rock garden. Our job is to identify them and witness them.. (yeah, I know ... but still... right?) Kinda like that scene in Indiana Jones where the Holy Grail is a plain wooden cup... apparently grandparenthood is full of holding ordinary treasures — sticks, rocks, trash —that have stories attached that give them magic ... everything comes from somewhere and is destined for other things ...
I’ve rattled on far too long... thanks for letting me feel a little less odd in a world too obsessed with neatness and order...
Love this so much!!!!
These comments brought tears to my eyes. I'm truly so blown away. As a creator I can't think of anything more satisfying than having people "get it." I wanted parents to feel "seen." And now I feel so seen. It's wonderful. Thank you again to Meg from the bottom of my heart.