Laura O'Connor: Embroidery as Dissent

Opening Receptions:

Saturday, November 19, 6-9pm

Saturday, December 17, 6-9pm
 

"Needle and thread are always in my hands and when using them I join a long and strong tradition of women who have turned needlecraft into a vehicle for political expression and commentary on society." -- Laura O'Connor

Laura O'Connor's embroidery work uses a symbol of domesticity and femininity to challenge those same notions. She works primarily in the needlecrafts of embroidery and cross-stitch, preferring the historical balance they can provide, as well as the flexibility they offer to evolve and change to fit modern times. Compared to the relative quickness it takes to just write a comment on social media, each of O'Connor's pieces takes a good amount of time and thought to create into a tangible product -- complete with pithy, sarcastic, often biting and shockingly honest commentary about our culture at large. O'Connor's Blue Moon collection represents a visual journal of the last two years of pandemic living. Embroidery was how she learned more about craftivism and feminism and how she documented "the funny, little things." It was also her vehicle for working through her frustration and grief related to our changing socio-political landscape and its concurrent threats to women's rights.