Home
2024
33″ x 23.5″
Fabric
This quilt is about Point Molate being not just another place, another location but also home. It is my hope that when we reframe a space as a home, as a place of longing and belonging, that we treat it with love and respect, and not merely exploit it and expect it to serve our needs at all costs, future generations be damned. In the distance are hills dotted with shells covered up, to honor and acknowledge the many shellmounds that the first people, Muwekma, Lisjan Ohlone people have interacted and tended the land for thousands of years until colonizers stole their land, the people and normalized this greed and privatization.
Many thanks to Jenny Balisle of ARTSCCC for inviting me to exhibit and trusting me and my chaotic process, Pam Stello of Point Molate Alliance for connecting me to Jim Hanson who gave me permission to use his photo as reference, which I’ve included here. And also much gratitude to Richmond Museum of History and Culture, specifically their Collections Manager, Victoria Stuhr for helping me with thinking this through and gathering background information.
I wanted to include/acknowledge the first people who were here and decided on using shellmounds as a symbol. Luckily I found fabric with shell patterns which I knew I would use for this. I am never sure how to appropriately acknowledge/honor their presence, as an outsider. Do I have the right to do that? I probably should have gotten permission or a discussion or a consultation with some folks about that. This process is new for me. And at the same time it is hard because of the time crunch. I wanted to depict people but didn’t really have much reference images except the ones that were also imagined since photographs weren’t available then. I struggled with this, and even whether or not the shells should be covered or not covered. When I went to the Richmond Museum of History and Culture, I learned that shellmounds were everywhere, so I dotted the landscape with different size of shellmounds, but was shy about leaving them uncovered because I wasn’t sure if leaving it uncovered would translate to any certainty. The only thing I know for certain is that it is not known exactly where they are/were.
I really wanted to make two more smaller quilts/banner, and due to a medical emergency my mom had at the end of November, I had to postpone starting any of them until December 19, 2023, so because I was starting so late, I wasn’t even sure if I could make 1 quilt. Maybe it was a blessing that I had covid at that time, because I was forced to stay home and work on it. Then when I recovered, my dad ended up in the hospital, so I went to be with him and I worked more of it in the hospital and in the hotel (after he was discharged and returned to the board and care facility). It isn’t a true quilt, but it’s good enough for the exhibit. I worked mostly at night, first staying up until 3 am, then 4 am, then 5 am, then 6 am then 7 am and slept for 5 hours or so. I lose track of time. It is when I’m most productive. I finally finished this on January 10, 2024. Given the short amount of time I gave myself to make this, I’m relieved and satisfied with the result.