400 Word Essay

An amazing exhibit I recently visited was at the Shepard Union Art Gallery with Judy Elsley's Breast Cancer Quilts. 

There was a clear hierarchy in the presentation of the cancer quilt exhibit from the entrance to the back, but what struck me most importantly was that this exhibit wasn’t just art made out of quilts, this art was truly someone’s life represented through quilts, a powerful display utilizing the “verbal with the visual.”

The entrance showcased What The Body Knew quilts, segments created by Elsley back before she even knew she had cancer, signifying perfectly what her body knew before her she did. The set up also paralleled perfectly for me as a viewer as I entered the gallery, looking at the quilts trying to figure out the meanings. The quilts looked like cells, and cells going awry (like cancer). After continuing on, I discovered, as she must have, all the confusion was actually the scary discovery of breast cancer.

In the back gallery, I finally discovered the voice behind the quilts. She was an English teacher, and her name was Dr. Judy Elsleys, and that she loved to put the visual with the verbal, one of my favorite things too, which is why it made so much sense to see the visualness of the quilts combined with the words. 

All of her pieces dealt with her journey through cancer. She displayed a lot of positivity in her quilts, like what becoming healthy again meant, facing her fears and labeling them, and gratitude for the people supporting her. There was also a nice dichotomy with the quilt that had things she’d miss if she died and instead she turned them into things she loved about life. And her One Day At a Time quilt, that when you’re at a dark point in your life, it’s hard to imagine very much of the future. So instead, all you can do is focus on one day at a time, hence her Daily prayer quilt quote, “Gratefully and expectantly, I ask for one day’s portion of grace.” 

I took a lot away from that exhibit thanks to Judy Elsley and I’m glad I saw it. It was powerful seeing the verbal used with the visual with such a personal story, and as a graphic designer who uses the verbal with the visual too, the experience was something I will keep in mind.