Hurricane Chronicles
by Jane Hardy Miller
Cotton, original block design, hand
stenciled, machine pieced and quilted with embellishments.
When I first thought about a hurricane
quilt, I was too busy hauling trees to work on it. When I finally
sorted my impressions of the period surrounding the storm the
primary memories were of chaos, fear, and exhaustion. But there
were also several vivid recollections--almost as if they were
photographs in my mind--which I chose to translate into fabric
in "Hurricane Chronicles." The shift to the left in
the third panel is both metaphorical and literal: metaphorical
because everything changed during this storm and it will never
go back to being the way it was; literal because many trees that
stood straight on August 23 are, though well-rooted, now leaning
permanently to the west. The shredded binding is pretty much the
way things were, and still are in many areas. It especially reminds
me of post-Andrew patio screening, which hung in shreds. The rows
of houses are an adaptation of a traditional block. I didn't want
the back to be plain so I put the hurricane flags on it. They
were everywhere--newspapers, signs, even grocery bags--in the
weeks following the hurricane.
Science Learning Network / Inquiry
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©2000 Miami Museum of Science
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