Mending and Restoration

I walked into Backyard Beans, ordered a coffee, and inquired about the coffee sacks being held for me. As I stood there drinking my favorite cardamom black pepper latte, Britney walked out from the roasting area with a pile of neatly folded and stacked burlap sacks. She held them in her outstretched arms as if they were a precious gift. Thus began an ongoing fascination with the unique textures, weaves and marks to be found on coffee sacks.

Once the coffee arrives at the roaster, the bags have done their job, or so most people think. Great care has been taken to grow the beans under ideal conditions. I like bestowing attention on the burlap, the material that has made the journey of the coffee bean possible. Engaging with the material, I open a realm where the humble burlap sack transcends its original function and becomes the ground for artistic expression.

Embracing the aesthetic of worn materials and the process of mending, I create objects that reflect the passage of time and the potential for transformation. Adornment suggests transcendence: the opportunity to elevate something ordinary so that it can be seen with new eyes. Mending is a form of repair, a restoration that acknowledges loss and change, and the ability to keep going in a fresh way.

Empathic Distress and Burnout

Before focusing on my studio practice, I worked as an art therapist. I became an art therapist because I wanted to use my interest in art as a tool to help people who were suffering. In my family system there was the deeply ingrained value of caring for other people’s needs before your own. I witnessed alot of suffering and desperately wanted to be helpful. Creating experiences to support freedom of exxpression and opportunities for group dialogue were rewarding to me as a therapist. Patients were responsive to what I had to offer.

During that time, my father died suddenly of cancer and my mother started to have symptoms of dementia.  Caring for my own family, managing all the responsibilities of my mother’s illness and working with seriously ill patients became too much for me.  At the time I didn’t know about empathic distress and how that can lead to burnout. I left my job as an art therapist after 17 years and decided to go back to school to develop as an artist. 

The  Healthy Habit of Art Making

Pursuing my Masters in Fine Arts at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts introduced me to the rigor and the joy of working in my studio everyday.  The daily habit of art making for even a brief period of time continues to be an essential tool for me.  The creative process nourishes me in mind, body and spirit.   Honoring my artistic nature is essential to keeping myself in alignment with my truth. As an artist, I love making a mess.  And then I love finding my way through it to create something new and to transform the materials and myself in the process.  

Exquisite Tenderness and Strength

My grandmother could make something out of whatever was available to her.  Having lived through the Great Depression she was familiar with the need to make do with the resources she had.  Creativity and generosity were her superpowers, her own kind of agency as a woman living in the patriarchal society of the early 20th century.  She married at age 18 and became a preacher’s wife.  She transformed this role into an opportunity for building community and working for social justice as she nourished people with food, clothing and friendship.

Her legacy lives on in me.  I think of her when I repurpose clothing and coffee sacks, when I listen deeply in conversation and when I offer gatherings to foster both creativity and generosity.  She taught me about true nourishment, the kind that allows all of us to thrive,  even in challenging times. I deeply admire herr ability to embody “exquisite tenderness toward our shared humanity”, as. says.

“transform ourselves to transform the world.” adrienne