PORTFOLIO > BLOG: REFLECTIONS ON "JUST A PEEK, PLEASE?"

Women's Work
Women's Work
2023

As I work on this latest painting, trying to marry Palestinian and American sewing traditions and symbolism, I am marinating on how most cultural traditions are passed from generation to generation through women. Traditional food, clothing, dances, songs, folklore and bedtime stories....so much of what makes life interesting and worth exploring comes from the hands, mouths, and hearts of women.

Men too, of course...

But...women :)


I've got the children to tend

The clothes to mend

The floor to mop

The food to shop

Then the chicken to fry

The baby to dry

I got company to feed

The garden to weed

I've got shirts to press

The tots to dress

The can to be cut

I gotta clean up this hut

Then see about the sick

And the cotton to pick.
Shine on me, sunshine

Rain on me, rain

Fall softly, dewdrops

And cool my brow again.
Storm, blow me from here

With your fiercest wind

Let me float across the sky

'Til I can rest again.
Fall gently, snowflakes

Cover me with white

Cold icy kisses and

Let me rest tonight.
Sun, rain, curving sky

Mountain, oceans, leaf and stone

Star shine, moon glow

You're all that I can call my own.

--"Woman Work" by Maya Angelou

p/c: strandofsilk.com