About Even By Night Cyanotype Tapestry

 

Even by Night the sky is Blue, 2004

The cyanotype Quilt is 80” High by 70” wide.

Cyanotype on cotton fabric, 400 mother of pearl buttons.

 

For this fabric wall hanging, I wanted to create a piece in response to a phrase from Henry David Thoreau: “Even by night the sky is blue and not black, for we see through the shadow of the earth into the distant atmosphere of day”.

 

The imagery is a series of clouds, birds, oceans, mountains, trees, shells, and stones.  I thought of these pictures as a progression of views, looking up and down. 

 

I am under the influence of the Northwest Coast Indians who made ceremonial clothes and blankets decorated with hundreds of mother of pearl buttons.  In the late 19th century, they acquired these buttons in trade with the European fur traders.  I have always admired the way the buttons were integrated into their artwork.  The patterns are decorative as well as symbolic. 

 

The hundreds of mother of pearl buttons are from my mother’s and grandmother’s collections.