Breaking New Ground - Dixie Biggs, Delaine Miller

Wool Rug on Linen, Cherry Woodturned Discs, Spirit Stains, Indian Ink, Prisma Color Pencils, Krylon Matte 
28" x 18" x 1.5"
 
 
Delaine and I are collaborators in our life together. For this piece, we had in-depth discussions about how we might collaborate and combine my carved woodturnings with her wool hooked rug making. Combining natural materials—wood and wool—makes sense aesthetically, but we wanted to find a way to integrate hard (wood) and soft (wool) to illustrate our vision. Same-sex couples have always been marginalized and discriminated against. Because we have experienced that negativity in our lives, we were looking for something positive that would express our thoughts and feelings. We ran across the quote from the Greek poet, Dinos Christianopoulos: “They tried to bury us. They didn’t know we were seeds.” This powerful statement planted a seed in us for deeper thought and discussion. Seeds are often used in artwork to represent new beginnings, and the idea for our piece Breaking New Ground began to sprout and grow.