Readers Gallery: Fashioning an Identity

Exposure, 51″ x 44″, hand-cut discarded clothing on cotton rug warp.  Designed and hooked by Linda Friedman Schmidt, 2010.

TEXT AND PHOTOS BY LINDA FRIEDMAN SCHMIDT

As an artist, I see things differently than many people. I use rug hooking to make something beautiful out of discarded clothing, and in the process I help create a more beautiful planet and a more appealing life for myself. The parallels between rug hooking and my life become more and more obvious as I continue to create. Once “clothed” in sadness with a disturbing past, I now shed old layers and transform myself. I reconstruct the worthless into worthy, the bad into good, the devalued into valuable, the powerless into powerful, the sad into glad, the ugly into beautiful, the ordinary into extraordinary—and you can do it, too.

I deconstruct cast-off garments, and transform the traditional craft of rug hooking into a contemporary, non-utilitarian art form. I don’t spend lots of money on the best wools because I can get similar results by recycling old garments made of natural and synthetic fibers and help preserve our environment at the same time. Any and all discarded clothing can be used for hooking as long as you are willing to do the cutting by hand. Getting the image you want takes patience, perseverance, concentration, and attention to one detail at a time. I hook with painstaking attention to the nuances of colors and shades to evoke feelings.

Linda hand-cuts all of the clothing she uses to create her rugs. The materials she works with include cotton, wool, rayon, nylon, polyester, acrylic, Lycra, and blends containing two or more of those listed. In other words, every one of her works contains every fabric imaginable. All of her pieces are heavily layered.

Using recycled materials. . .

. . . has helped me understand my family and the world. I often heard of the relatives lost and the millions who died in the Holocaust. Discarded clothes represent traces of lives lived. By rescuing and giving new life to these garments, I am symbolically rescuing those who perished needlessly. Discarded garments are remnants—displaced, odd pieces—leftovers like my family of survivors. The hand-cut strips of discarded clothing are given a new life in the art of my rugs.

Using recycled materials . . .

. . . has helped me connect with others. Clothing tells a real-life story, evokes deep feelings, and captures personal experiences. The recycled clothing I use in my work does all that as well and links me to others whose garments wear on in my work. I thread one generation to the next, connecting with my mother and all the women who picked up hooks and needles before me.  I most often bond with others nonverbally through eye contact and touch on the ballroom dance floor. Maybe this is why viewers comment on the eyes and hands when looking at my artwork.

Using recycled materials. . .

. . . has helped me come to terms with the modern world. In my work, I bring to the forefront that which is often shoved under the rug: man’s inhumanity toward his fellow man/woman/child, both at home and in the world at large. I take rugs off the floor, reinvent rags, and create psychologically charged portraits from discarded clothing. The rug and rag are elevated, celebrated, getting a second chance at life.

Using recycled materials. . .

. . . has helped me shed my second skin. Clothing is a second skin, an artificial covering for the covering we were born with. We sometimes use clothing to conceal our true identity and physical shortcomings, to impress others, to play a role, to attain power, to gain visibility, to create an illusion for the outside world.

I deconstruct, reconstruct, reconfigure, and transform by shedding and cutting through old clothing in order to redress my life.

Using recycled materials . . .

. . . has made me happier than I ever was. My childhood dream has come true. I am doing what I always wanted to do: making art every day and exhibiting regularly in fine museums and galleries. My old wardrobe fades away as it transmutes into the hooked “paintings” in which I recognize and appreciate my relationship to the universe. Now I am at peace, with time to admire the beauty of nature, flowers, trees, birds, and every living thing.

HOOKED RUGS ON DISPLAY

• The Bad with the Good was on display as part of Reality & Artifice, 2010 New Jersey Arts Annual Fine Art at the New Jersey State Museum, Trenton, New Jersey, through October 31, 2010. An exhibition catalogue is available in the museum shop.
• In October 2010, Linda’s work was introduced to a wider international audience through a PowerPoint presentation at the Henan Art Museum, Zhengzhou City, China, as part of the International Fiber Art Symposium “Nationalization and Globalization of Contemporary Fiber Art.”
• Visit www.lindafriedmanschmidt.com to learn more about the artist and her work.