Join Me At The Heinz History Center

Dear friends,

The Rauh Jewish Archives will exhibit Louise Silk: A Patchwork Life from September 2024 through April 2025. Through a retrospective lens of my work, the exhibit will consider the evolution of fiber art within the fine art world, the growth of feminism locally, and environmentalism within the craft movement, among other topics. 

The centerpiece of the exhibit is my new work called The Witness Quilt made from more than 1200 individual patches, each bearing a piece of folk wisdom.  Below is the opportunity to be a hands-on part of the quilt. Maybe you are interested? If so, sign up for an information session below. Or maybe you know someone who might like to do some stitching, please forward this blog.

No hands-on stitching for you? No problem, stay tuned, much more information about other exhibition programming (including the opening) to follow!

Volunteer Opportunity:”Louise Silk: A Patchwork Life”
The Rauh Jewish Archives will be opening a retrospective this fall of local quilter and fiber artist Louise Silk. As part of the exhibit, Silk is creating a monumental new quilt with help from her “BubbeWisdom Stitching Circle,” a group of volunteers who will expand this quilt over the coming months. If you already have basic hand-stitching skills, you’ll be ready to go. If you’ve always wanted to learn, this is a great opportunity to acquire a new skill and join an exciting community initiative. To learn more about this project, and to help make it a reality, please register for an upcoming information session: Sunday, April 7, noon-2 p.m.Thursday, April 11, 6-8 p.m.
For more information, please contact the archive:rjarchives@heinzhistorycenter.org

Yickus Part III:

The Matriarchs Met The Patriarchs

My dad used to say it was plain luck. The analogy he repeatedly quoted was that of a dart board- maybe there is a little skill in there, being able to locate the dart and the place to throw it , but after that, fortune rules.

My mom came from a long line of strong matriarchs. Life on life’s terms taught them that independence, perseverance, plus recognizing and making the right action was the key to success. 

The Matriachs

When my mom spied my dad on the 71 streetcar going to classes at Pitt- she knew she had herself a path. She figured out who he was, how she could meet him and as is said: the rest is history.

Sadie and Howie

Sadie & Howie coming together create the fortunate product of their daughter, me, the best from both worlds- my dad’s humanity and my mom’s practicality. The quilt below was made from my mom’s favorite suit- denim with a touch of sparkle- that was them to a tee.

Yichus-Part II

National Record Mart was part of my legacy. My grandfather was Hymen Shapiro, the very selfless spirit who brought all of his siblings and then his parents from Russian to Pittsburgh for a better life. Watching the video makes me feel a sense of pride being part of a family business that means so much to its community.

Sarah and Hymen Shapiro

Growing up in the record business has many memories, like going with my dad to concerts- not to watch them- but to be back stage counting the tickets or eating hot dogs with him standing behind the register or shaking Paul McCartney’s hand or getting The Beach Boys autographs by leaving a paper in the back seat of our Lincoln Continental for when my Mom drove them to the airport.

Wanting to honor my herstory, I came up with the idea of 18 45records. 18 in Hebrew means good luck- my great fortune to part of the Record Mart Family. These signify my childhood, growing up in the 50s and all that it entailed being a part of NRM.

Yichus Part I

Searching for wisdom, I have spent considerable effort exploring each of my relatives. There is a beautiful video put together by the JCBA Pittsburgh that shows my family’s cemetery, among many others, maintained by JCBA. The cemetery is one way to sit with the souls of the Shapiro family in the quiet of their gravesites, to ponder about their lives.

Another way I commune with my relatives is through my embroidery. There are several examples of this- including these of early attempts. The one on the left is my great grandfather and mother from my father’s family. The one on the right is my grand father and mother on my mother’s side.

8″H X 14″W; Hand embroidery and applique on old clothing.

I did them again this year putting them into the context of my entire linage.

And this is the latest embroidery of my whole misphachah:

Through The Generations; 36”H X 29”W;Hand Embroidered French Knots & Machine Pieced Denim Patchwork; Row 1: Libby, Noah, Jacob, Ann, Row 2: Samuel, Ida, Sarah, Hymen, Row 3: Sarah, Sadye, Louise, Howard, Row 4: Isadora, Hailey, Eli, Maya

Snug Sturdy Wise

I had the pleasure of working with these poets yesterday. We talked about all of the ways text is used in art expression. I told them about some of the classics like Harriet Powers and the AIDS Quilt and some of the well-know contemporary artists like Barbara Kruger and Pope.L.

Preparing to meet with them made me realize how much of my own work has included text. A few of the many samples below:

12″H X153″W; machine pieced, hand embroidered and quilted raw silk, 2009.

While I was with them, we had a little private time to make a poem using three words given to us by the moderator. Mine words were snug, sturdy and wise. Here is my poem:

WISDOM ABOUNDS

Snug is the quilted coat

warm, sturdy, protective

making a sweet spot to commune

with the wise

Louise Silk, Unheard Poetry, December 13, 2023

Our Very Best: The Silkea Bag

SilkDenim is alive and functioning. While, we have lots of desire but no time to develop a new product line, we continue to sell retail on ETSY and wholesale on FAIRE .

The order today was for Silkea-Minis. This is the very best use, ever, of out leftovers. Being so much fun to make and even more fun to use, I felt compelled to share!

As listed in our store: You know that big blue plastic bag that only the most popular Swedish-furniture-maker could envision? The huge one that people fill with endless stuff? Well, we discovered that that bag could only be improved by a conversion into denim. Hence – the Silkea Bag. It’s our most resourceful use of our denim leftovers in our zero-waste studio. Rough and wild. HUGE. You can keep filling and filling it. Perfect for any form of schlepping. It comes with two kinds of recycled denim straps for over-the-shoulder and hand-carrying. 

12″H X 22″W X 16″D; two 13″ handles and two 27″ handles; 13” hang from shoulder

Some Favorite BubbeWisdoms

The opening date for “Louise Silk: A Patchwork Life” at The Heinz History Center is Sunday September 1, 2024. “The Witness Project” is its narrative centerpiece. Launched at the opening of the exhibit, Silk and a team of stitchers will embellish an enormous, resplendent ritual garment with meaningful scraps of material donated by exhibition viewers. Throughout latter exhibition days, the garment will be systematically dismantled and given away to the public. A major cultural event in the life of our region, the interactive work validates the central testament of the exhibit, demonstrating how the American quilting tradition brings disparate pieces into an exquisite, unified whole.

August 1, 2023-the 15th of Av, 5783 

In the Babylonian Talmud it is written that “when we enter Av, our joy is diminished.” This month is associated with the darkest events in Jewish history, the Nine Days culminating in the fast day of Tisha B’Av, the ninth of Av. 

However, Tu B’Av, the 15th Day of Av, is a post-biblical day of joy. It served as a matchmaking day for unmarried women in the Second Temple period, before the fall of Jerusalem in 70 C.E. In its modern incarnation, it is a Hebrew-Jewish Day of Love, slightly resembling Valentine’s Day in English-speaking countries. Tu B’Av, is a day for romance explored through singing, dancing, & giving flowers, and a great day for weddings, commitment ceremonies, and the renewal of vows. 

Next Tu B’Av, the 15th of Av, 5784, will be the opening of “Louise Silk: A Patchwork Life” at the Senator John Heinz History Center. The exhibit is a retrospective presenting the full scope of my career from 1972 until the present, placing the work within a historic and biographical context. It will consider the role of quilting in the lives of American women broadly, and it will analyze the reasons that Jewish women immigrating from Europe to America rarely participated in quilting. It will also tell the story of Western Pennsylvania fiber arts over the past half century, a period when the field expanded beyond its roots as a home-based craft to become increasingly accepted within the fine art world. 

Quilts and other works of fiber arts will be supplemented and enriched by archival materials including family photographs, preparatory sketches and planning documents, archival film and video, and a viewer engagement installation, all pieced together to demonstrate the importance of American needlework as the repository of folk history, cultural reflection, personal empathy, and living history. 

BASHERT; SYNCHRONICITY; RIGHT ACTION; KARMA; call it what you may, Tu B’Av is nothing less than the most perfect date to open “Louise Silk: A Patchwork Life”, giving the added purpose of spreading love and joy throughout the region.