Memory Fabrics and Dirt Girls

Yesterday I went to Baltimore to the Visionary Art Museum and saw a neat show: Race, Class, Gender ≠ Character.
"Among humans, much is made of our many apparent differences—masculine and feminine, rich and poor, light and dark skin tone. Yet there is one profound and global constant that should shape our values: those attributes that we value most in ourselves and in others, and that transcend the strictures of religion, parentage, place, and time. In English, we call these desirables "character," but in every language and culture there is wisdom aimed at defining and championing attainment of these kindred and universal beneficent ideals."

Some interesting and expressive outsider art was in the show. There was an exhibit of "memory fabrics" by South Africa women living in apartheid. The instruction was for them to create out of fabric "A Day I Will Never Forget." The fabric pieces, resembling quilt squares, are beautiful and powerful.

This would be a great directive for an art therapy group.

Another exhibit was of small dolls by Linda St. John that filled the walls of the room. She had one group placed in a box in the middle of the room. The box had dirt for the floor with 100 dolls placed standing in the dirt. She titled this one: 100 Dirt Yard Girls. It was fabulous.