Making Our Burdens Beautiful

A reflection on contemporary craft and looking at the glass half-full

I’m not proud to say that I’m one of those people who lives right outside a big city and regularly claims they live in it to save themselves the hassle of explaining where their small town is. In my case, that city is Washington D.C., our (well, my) nation’s capital. Although I don’t live there, I do visit frequently; it’s a wonderful place to explore. Last week, I visited the Renwick Gallery in D.C. with my sister. It’s the Smithsonian American Art Museum’s branch for contemporary craft - basically, art made out of materials that aren’t paint. As usual, I was amazed by the works of art and the creative materials the artists had decided to use. On this particular visit, however, I noticed a theme to the exhibit, something I hadn’t noticed on previous visits (to be fair, I was probably about 8 years old during those other visits). I’ll describe it as “making our burdens beautiful.” Each piece of art depicted something stressful, trying, painful, or daunting, but you would never know it without reading the descriptions of each work. They were all extraordinarily beautiful in their own right.

The Art

First, a set of beautifully decorated body bags. Artist Maggie Thompson beaded a Morningstar pattern around the bag, a symbol of honor often found on quilts. In tribal communities, quilts are often created to recognize transitions in life. She explains that she was inspired to create the piece as a way to honor her dad when she watched the coroners take her father away in a simple, white bag the night he passed away. The star wraps around the bag and represents wrapping and holding the body with love. She has transformed a symbol of death and endings into a symbol of warmth and endearment.

Erica Lord had a new take on the burden straps worn by the Alhabascan and Iñupiat peoples. The straps are typically used to carry everyday objects, or even babies. Baby belts are a symbol of honor in their communities - a welcoming of new life. She began thinking of the idea of a burden strap symbolically, rather than functionally. She created beautiful, beaded burden straps that replicate the results of genetic testing for diseases. She directly replicates the microarrays of these tests - representations of the different features of DNA strands - in beaded form. Different colors represent normal expressions of the gene and diseased or mutated segments. She’s taken the burden of diseases like leukemia and multiple myeloma and placed them beautifully on a symbol of honor and respect.

There are lots of other examples, like a beaded box carefully woven by David Chatt that houses 30 years’ worth of his father’s letters to him, created after the father’s death, and a tapestry called “Our Destruction” created by Carla Hemlock that reflects the current state of our planet due to climate change, with the message that time is running out, but also focuses on the things we can’t lose - our hearts, homes, and souls. These artists have created something incredible out of the most difficult experiences humans endure.

The “So What?”

As I walked through the gallery, these unique works forced me to challenge myself and the way I reflect on things that happen to me. If these artists can take the worst parts of our lives - death, disease, and destruction - and create something beautiful with them, we must be able to do the same with the difficult ordeals in our lives. I think it takes a lot of strength to be able to beautify those three D’s, but if there’s one thing this exhibit taught me, it’s that life is all about perspective. When something bad happens, how do you look at it? Is it the end of the world or is it just a roadblock? Somehow, the creator of the “Our Destruction” tapestry was able to take the literal end of the world and look at the positive side of it. I’m not telling you to look at cancer as a little bump in the road. What I’m saying is that when you fail an exam, try to see it as an opportunity to learn from your mistakes. When you fall down the stairs, remember that we aren’t invincible, and that that can be a blessing. When you break a glass, take it as a reminder that life is fragile, but that’s what makes it worth living. And when something happens that cuts deep into your heart, know that every trial and tribulation makes us who we are. Try to make your everyday burdens beautiful. I promise it will make you happier.