Icon - Worship from Afar

In an online discussion about the word Icon with our group, Susan Hendrickson said "What I am thinking of here is to move from the literal (a picture of an icon) to the personal." That statement got me thinking about not looking at the icon, but at the person "making" the icon. What I mean by that is that for something or someone to become an icon, someone has to worship it or them. How do they worship? In the case of a moviestar, singer, etc., the worshiper rarely, if ever has contact. That makes the only worship available to the worshiper "from afar."

The back ground walls are hand dyed cotton fabric, commercial cotton floor. I wanted the look of graffiti on the walls without it being words and I think that I accomplished it. The words Worship From Afar were first quilted but didn't show up enough so I also highlighted the words with fabric markers. The open doorway is also hand dyed cotton and acrylic paint outline and stamped word Icon. I didn't use an "O" but found a circle stamp in the right size.

The hands belong to a friend of mine. I took a picture, digitally altered it into black and white and printed it onto cotton fabric, and simply hand stitched around it with wool embroidery thread left over from a project from 28 years ago! I then "tacked" the hands onto the front down the middle (but not going through the hands) so that they stand out from the background. The piece is faced with the same hand dyed scrap as the walls.

It has been a busy day and I almost forgot to post! I had to get up after going to bed because all of a sudden I remembered!

Lisa Kay