Page 32 - 50 Years of Fiber Art: The Fiber Artists of San Antonio Exhibition Catalog
P. 32
Grue Shackelford
Pennsylvania, illwindstudios@gmail.com
Illwindstudios.com
DECADE: 1970s
As a native of West Virginia with deep roots in the Appalachians, the concept of "home"
always connects back to the ancient mountains where for generations my family lived.
To be a 'mountaineer' is 'to be free', as our state motto proclaims. However, this
freedom is forever juxtaposed with the myriad of socio-economic trauma that continually
carves into the lives of each person within those hills. The term "Appalachian Fatalism"
is a constant and this fatalistic view runs contrary to the freedom we feel when we walk
along those hills: a glorious, sublime backdrop to intergenerational trauma.
The Sisters is a triptych of three figures based on both the hills of home and my three
great-aunts, the oldest remaining links I have to past generations. This piece draws
inspiration from both feminist and ecological art of the 1970s, which was also a great
period of socio-economic change within the state between the UMWA and the coal
companies.
The Sisters, 2022
Tufted yarn, glass
43" x 17" x 2"
$1000.00
