ARTIST STATEMENT
My pieces were in response to the new realities of a post-Roe America. The piece An American 10 Year Old is about the fact that many people in our country seem accepting of young girls being pregnant. As women are left without care providers who will be there to care for them?
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Needle and thread are always in my hands; and using them I join the long history of women who have turned needlecraft into a vehicle for political expression and commentary on society. I work primarily in the needlecrafts of embroidery and cross-stitch. I like the balance that they can provide. They have a long history but also the ability to change to fit modern times. They take time and thought to create a tangible product rather than the quickness of writing a comment on social media.
Embroidery was how I worked through my frustration and grief with politics and the pandemic. It was how I learned more about craftivism and feminism. It was how I documented the funny, little things. My work uses a symbol of domesticity and femininity to challenge those same notions.
Laura O’Connor of Blue Bottom Art is a Grayslake based fiber artist who specializes in embroidered hoop art. Her work covers a wide range from feminism to fashion. She likes the balance of custom and modernity that can be found in fiber arts. Fiber arts have a rich history of beauty but also subversion. Since 2020 she has used her unique embroidery designs to continue this tradition. Many of her embroideries are in the craftivism genre and are part of the following projects: Tiny Pricks Project, Interwoven Stories, I am Woman Project, and Badass HERstory.
© Laura O’Connor