Friday, April 15, 2011

FUN WITH A PUN

This was a little wall hanging that I did for a quilt challenge 2004 in Coos Bay, Oregon. The challenge was to make a quilt with a pun. There were to be winners that were picked by the members.
I have Asperger's Syndrome and one of the things that I used to have a difficult time with was getting jokes. I dated a guy (once) that was a master at coming up with puns. I looked like the Victor dog looking at the Master's Voice.
So this quilt really challenged me, even though I have gotten a lot better at figuring out joke/puns. I thought that the puns had to have something to do with Coos Bay, so I ended up making this harder than it really was. Then just to add more difficulty I thought the members would be more impressed with the more puns one got on their quilt.

So I figured out 10 puns to add to the quilt. The name of the quilt is called Tow Boats on the River Bed. In Coos Bay they have tow boats that bring the barges into the bay from the Pacific Ocean. The puns are:
  • tow boats
  • smoke stack
  • river bed
  • crazy quilt
  • rock bed
  • sea level
  • water table
  • light house (which is quilted into the cloud and floating off)
  • sun flower for the sun and which has one of the required fabrics
  • little off (because I couldn't get the quilt squared up and keep hacking it till I decided enough)
I went by a fabric shop to show my friend and she told me that I should enter that in the quilt show at the Coos Art Museum. It was a juried show for quilters of Oregon. I never thought it was museum quality, but because I had a lot of respect for her I took slides and entered it in the show. This I guess was the first time I really felt that I had become an "artist". But really I was as a little girl and making barbie cars out of cardboard boxes because we couldn't afford a barbie camper (actually I think that my parents wanted to discourage my fascination with Barbie's. I had the Skipper doll which didn't have breast. Talk about up tight...but when I had my children I didn't let my girl play with Barbies either. Instead I bought her Groovy Girl Dolls.)
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5 comments:

  1. Lynn CohenApril 15, 2011 at 3:26 PM

    I never would have guessed you have Aspergers! Never!
    I think I saw this at your house and wish I had let you point out all the puns to me. Perhaps you did and I forgot as I saw so many wonderful works of art there. Yes, no doubt, you ARE an ARTIST!!!
    yes to no Barbies and YES to Groovy Dolls!!!

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  2. MarieApril 16, 2011 at 3:23 AM

    What a great piece and yes you are an ARTIST!
    What I love about your pieces are how much
    thoughtfulness you put into them.
    I was a Barbie fan, but my daughters loved
    stuffed animals. :)

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  3. Snail ClothApril 16, 2011 at 6:32 PM

    Thank you! What is an artist but someone who is making art. Why do we have the bar so high that we don't allow our self easy access. What other things do we put up there out of reach?

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  4. AnonymousApril 21, 2011 at 2:03 PM

    Beautiful! I am now seeing how quilt can be an art form because of your work. Previously I only knew of quilts through their traditional format (multicolored shapes.) I love how you tell stories with your quilts!

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  5. ColeenApril 27, 2011 at 8:53 AM

    Good story Becky. I enjoyed reading it. Thanks also for the link to Asbergers. That was interesting to read. Isn't it interesting the diagnosis' they have now that they didn't have when we were little? I think I'm ADHD, but they didn't have that when I was a kid. BTW, you aren't alone in not liking the Barbie doll thing. What an image it promotes.
    Cheers, Coleen in Ukraine

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