Tuesday, December 13, 2011

KoKo

I have been hearing KoKo talk about her SMP all semester while in class with her and it was interesting to see it up close finally. I heard her talking about making a quilt and to myself all semester I was thinking how is this really art? Not just is it art, but I just expected more out of KoKo because she is a very compelling artist and usually brings in a background story. Then as the semester went on I heard more about it an that the quilt was about home and connected to her passion for habitat for humanity and then I was amazed once again by Ko Ko.

Her SMP is titled Sew It Seams, this play on words fits her work nicely. She talked about how there are homeless people in St. Mary's County and that it is an ongoing issue. There are a lot of foreclosures within the county and many homeless people are squatting in abandoned homes around the county. This issue is very hidden to us college students. It seems like we as a general population are sort of hidden from the outside world of this county we are a part of. The idea of this really seems close to KoKo's heart and she wants to show the SMCM student body what issues lie outside SMCM's boundaries.

The quilt she made is a strong way of raising this issue through her art work. Yeah, she could have just made some posters and tried to get her point across, but in the end they just become wallpaper and disappear. The quilt is a fun new way of showing people the truth. To create the quilt she sat outside the great room, and askeed people to think about what home means to them. Then to translate this onto a quilt square, through art. So no only is her piece her artwork but it also hold other peoples views on home. These squares were then literally and figuratively stitched together to create this big quilt, holding the many views of home. People drew what they loved about home, whether it was a scenery or maybe a pet or family member. The quilt as a whole was very well put together and designed. Also, her presentation of the quilt was very effective.

She hung the quilt on the wall and also places a rug, pillows and other home like items around her corner space to make the set up feel more comfortable. People were then invited to sit on the rug and use markers, hot glue and so much more to create even more quilt squares.

KoKo is a very effective artist in everything she does, she always finds a deeper meaning and tries to show it, and I believe she did this very well with her SMP. I dont know if she will make more quilts or expand the current one or go off on a whole new idea all together. I am very interested to see where she goes with it for next semester and how her final project will turn out.


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