Paralyzed by Perfection #47882
'Way back in the seventies I came across a small ad in (Shuttle, Spindle and Dyepot? American Craft?) from an artist who was looking for weavers and needleworkers to collaborate with her on a large project she was working on. It sounded pretty interesting so I got the preliminary information about a meeting to be held in Chicago and began to assemble my portfolio. I tried to find my most perfect work, or failing that, the work that could be made perfect. I fretted and worked and fretted some more and finally decided that nothing I had would be good enough and it was a waste of my time to go to Chicago and I couldn't afford to go anyway and why should I go to all the trouble and expense only to be told what I already knew- that my work wasn't up to someone elses standards and besides, on closer thought, maybe the whole thing didn't sound so great anyway.
The first time I saw Judy Chicago's "The Dinner Party" it took my breath away. I was uncomfortable with some of her images (a feeling that I seem to have grown out of) but the needlework was beautiful and the way in which the clay and the textiles complimented each other and the overall concept was mind-boggling. I kicked myself for years for not having gone to that meeting in Chicago- accepted or not I would have come home with a story to tell.
Last week there was an item in the paper about "The Dinner Party", it has found a home in the Brooklyn Museum, and it occured to me that I did have a story to tell, a cautionary tale to be sure, but a story none the less.

http://www.brooklynmuseum.org/exhibitions/dinner_party/