Gratitude
Cherryl Floyd-Miller
Charleston, SC
12"h x 12"w

 

Artist statement: My mother is a strong advocate for ending domestic violence, and she is a 20-year cancer survivor (brain tumor). The way I've viewed her battle with her disease, is that it is a domestic violence. If the body is the "house" for the soul, then insidious diseases are a violent invasion.

I used the words from poet Cornelius Eady, a friend and mentor who is also a cancer survivor, for this quilt. His poem, "Gratitude," aptly champions the spirit of my mother in her fight against the furies that rear their ugly faces in her own "house" and in the houses of others.

Inside the red circle near the bottom third of this quilt, I have tied away an excerpt of Eady's poem which says, "...I have survived. I am a brick house that is being built around your house."

The other words on the quilt, "Gratitude" and "In My House," symbolize how I believe my mother has fought her way through the toughest parts of her battle: she invited gratitude into her house. Her life as a community worker, social worker and planet citizen have been remarkable examples of resilience and self-determination. So often, doctors have predicted the week or month of her death, yet she is still with us. Her refusal to die is just an example of not buying into what others have tried to speak into her life. When she meets people, she rarely talks about her own health, but if they knew her strength, I know they would be inspired.

My quilt, "Gratitude," is a commemoration to my mother's strong journey, the work that she has done to transform other strong women and the fact that the singularity of her voice against "domestic violence" is one that should infuse us all to become our greatest selves.