Saturday, March 26, 2011

Alzheimer's Illustrated: From Heartbreak to Hope


The Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative is opening their newest traveling exhibit in Amherst, Ma. today. The exhibit is titled: "Alzheimer's Illustrated: From Heartbreak to Hope." And each of the quilts in that exhibit show a different perspective of how we all look at, feel, and experience, Alzheimer's in our lives ....or the lives of those we know and love.

Fifty-four small format art quilts, none larger than 9" x 12", are hung amidst 182 "Name Quilts, " each 6 inches wide and 7 feet tall, carrying the names of more than 10,000 individuals who have/had Alzheimer's or a related dementia. The names of loved ones, written on the on the purple fabric patches by family members and friends, to honor the 5.4 million Americans in the United States living with Alzheimer's.

Alzheimer's Illustrated: From Heartbreak to Hope begins its five year tour opening with the "Hands Across The Valley" Quilt Show today and tomorrow, March 26 and 27. The exhibit will hang at the Mullins Center on the University of Massachusetts Campus in Amherst, MA.
It this exhibit comes to any place near you...please go see it. And if you can, sponsor it coming to your own area for viewing.

Our own AAQI founder and executive director, Ami Simms will present two programs called "Quilting & Caring: The Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative" on Saturday, March 26 at noon and again on Sunday, March 27 at 11 am. She and co-curator Kathy Kennedy-Dennis will be in attendance to speak with visitors about the exhibit.

I feel so very privileged to have these two quilts in this exhibit.


#5211 - Mama's Brain Got Tangles...but Mama's Still Inside

Michele M. Bilyeu
Salem, OR USA

Artist's Statement: Like my mother's memory, this art quilt consists of many layers, tangles, and threads...with spots of clarity and light hidden amidst the colorful (but often chaotic) surface layer.

Dedication: For my mother who continually pushes through the advancing layers and tangles of Alzheimer's with infinite grace and humor.



#6399 - The Alzheimer's Prayer

Michele Bilyeu
Salem, OR USA

Artist Statement: I grieve for the loss of my father, and honor his strength, determination, and fortitude in helping my mother face the challenges of her Alzheimer's. He lovingly cared for her, helped her to retell those memories she still retained, and brought forth the bits and pieces of her fragmented life. With this quilt and my own prayers, I pray that other care givers will have the same love and devotion that he had and care for their patients and loved ones, as the people they truly are...and not just who they seem to have become.

Dedication: In honor and memory of my father, a loving care giver, and with the deepest love for my mother who is now in her fifth year of Alzheimer's. In spite of being blind, diabetic, and unable to walk, she still reaches out her heart to us with love.


And our talented quilt make Julie Sefton, also from our Liberated Challenge group has this beautiful quilt and has also contributed to the actual quilting of some of the purple name quilts, as well.

5197 - The Puzzle Known As Alzheimer's

Julie Sefton
Bartlett, TN

Artist's Statement: Her name was Lura. The middle child, she survived her older brother and younger sister. Lura was the first woman to work in the cost accounting department before becoming a full-time mother, homemaker, and to her great joy, a grandmother to five grandsons. As we watched the woman we loved slowly disappear beneath the relentless progression of Alzheimer's, we felt powerless. Now, I stitch for AAQI and remember.

Dedication: In honor and memory of my mother, Lura Irene Ash Walton (1916-2005).


And last but not least, Jean Sophie made a quilt that also is in the exhibit.



Jean-sophie Wood
Dallas, TX USA

Artist's Statement: This piece was inspired by a tree in my backyard when I lived in Lansing, Michigan that tenaciously held onto it's last leaf through January, long after all the other leaves on all the other trees had fallen and been buried under the snow.

Dedication: For Charlie, an Irishman who lived around the corner, on the same floor as me in a an apartment building on the top of Nob Hill in San Francisco. I experienced him first as a friendly neighbor who always said hello whenever and wherever our paths crossed and later as someone who reacted in fear and confusion whenever I said hello to him. I didn't know what was going on with Charlie until the building manager told me that some family members had come from Ireland to take him back and care for him because of his Alzheimer's diagnosis.




Links:
See some of the 183 Name Quilts ...seen behind Alex and Ricky on the wall above.... on their Quilt Show on YouTube:Quilt Show with Alex and Ricky

Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative
Quilts Selected For "Alzheimer's Illustrated: From Heartbreak to Hope" Exhibit.
check out all of the art quilts in the traveling exhibit.
Name Quilts: check these out...how devastating sad and amazing that 182 quilts could be made completely out of the names of people who have or have had Alzheimer's Disease!
The Artists: Yes, I submitted my resume but they are so busy right now, they haven't had time to publish it.

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