Endurance: Work Inspired by Lowell’s Textile History and its Immigrants, Past and Present, 2003
Mixed media

During the spring semester students were introduced to Lowell’s textile history through assigned readings and a visit to the Boott Mills. They were simultaneously introduced to sewing and manipulation of cloth. After performing various exercises to become familiar with sewing techniques, the focus of the course was to have the students apply these techniques to ideas inspired by their research and specific assigned projects. The topics for creative exploration included: water power from the river and canals, machinery’s function in the mills, patterns and repetition in the machines, the spinning of yarn, the weaving of cloth, the fibers used – cotton, flax, wool and silk, the immigrants who came to work in the mills, new immigrants who have recently come to Lowell and their native dress, and creating self-portraits.

The form of the final collaborative presentation of the work you see here takes on the suggestion of a large water wheel. The student work is quilted to one side of the circle in a loose collage format, to both emphasize the melting pot nature of the city and to give the students experience in collaborative decision making in art. The center strip displays creative explorations of the native dress of randomly selected immigrants, new and old (Chinese, French Canadian, Indian, Irish, Latino and Greek). This center placement uniting new and old in Lowell is meant to serve an ever-evolving foundation joining the two sides around it.

As the class instructor, I was challenged to compose the second side of the circle with a design that would complete the piece visually, thematically and conceptually. I arrived at the idea for treating the space as a whole after the student work was finished. Since they focused on close-up individual detailed pieces, I decided to portray the population of Lowell as from a distance, and over generations of time, represented by the many different and repeating shades of blue. The obvious water reference not only represents the importance of the river and canals to Lowell, but also the depths of what has been achieved here, a repeating cycle of hardship and prosperity, yet never dying out completely. In the past and present, families need(ed) to stick together to survive. Even when children are grown and leave, many family bonds still remain. These families are made up of different types of people and personalities, which are represented here in groupings of different colored knots. Each one is attached to a group, but still stands alone and provides a unique contribution to its family, on a larger scale to the city, and aesthetically to the artwork. Working with these students on this project was a great experience, and very satisfying to have seen their tremendous growth in creating textile art.