Marcella Edmund

Sometimes what we are doing in our lives take on a larger aspect than we anticipate.  I have collected lace for many years, and I decided to organize it and do an inventory of sorts.  I divided and set aside all the black lace, "until I had more time" and mounted the white and cream laces into books.  Then, a while later, when I did have time, I started on the black lace.  It was then that someone dear to me passed on, while the materials were spread out on my work table.  It seemed natural to compose a memorial, and based on the Victorian examples full of symbolic references, I created the "Ode".  The title refers both to my friend, now gone, and all the lives that the black lace had participated in.  Most of it was saved and reclaimed from garments that real people had worn in real lives.  I could not help but think, and deeply, about all of these things, as I composed my garden of grief.

17"w x 29"h

Antique cotton and silk laces, assembled and stitched to linen.