Tewksbury State Hospital, Tewksbury, MA

During this six week residency, I trained staff and patients how to build looms out of everyday materials such as PVC pipes, garden netting and paint stirring sticks. Using the theme of a wing, we built a 6 foot “wing” loom out of pipe and netting that patients and staff wove strips of fabric into. Each participant also decorated a “feather” made of a wooden stick, feathers, buttons, colored markers and sequins. These were attached the bottom edge of the wing. This community piece is now installed in the auditorium at Tewksbury State Hospital. Empowered with the idea that we need two wings to fly, the staff and patients have begun work on the second wing. The photos here show a mother weaving on a paint-stick loom as her infant looks on, the completed wing on an easel for the unveiling celebration, a detail and the wing installed in the auditorium.

Winter 2009