As part of December’s exhibit programming of MOTHER, A Mending Lab Workshop led by Amy Meissner will be Saturday, December 3, 2022, 10 am -12pm at Bunnell Street Arts Center.

Bring a garment in need of hand repair and work together with the artist to care for, accompany, and prolong the life of your textile. Simple supplies will be available to share or bring your own needle, thread, yarn, scissors. Max 20 participants. Fee is by donation, registration by email: amy@amymeissner.com.

“Hand stitching isn’t fast work. It’s a quiet skill that feels tenuous, nearly lost when placed in a contemporary context; it slips away like childhood, like domesticity, like safety beneath the weight of something handmade. I sew because I don’t know what it is to not sew. It’s this expectation of what the hand-sewn form is — protective, warm, decorative — so much like the definition of the domestic role, which compels me to heave against it. I take the traditional, beautiful handwork I was taught as a girl, then later as a professional seamstress and couch it within the painful, uncomfortable or frightening. My intent is to create thoughtful, arresting work, reliant on layers of narrative within the pieces themselves and within the history each viewer brings. This is time-based work, using old skills. An act of cutting apart, then piecing oneself back together.” https://www.amymeissner.com

Amy Meissner is an artist and repairer based on Dena’ina Homeland (currently known as Anchorage) whose work with found objects and abandoned textiles in need of repair and accompaniment references the physical and emotional labor of women. She holds an MA in Critical Craft Studies, an MFA in Creative Writing, and undergraduate degrees in Art and Textiles. Amy is a mother of two children.