The Great Mother by Erich Neumann (you can look at info on this WIKI link).

This author's writing and images influenced a great many pieces of my art. I think artists can have a 'power' image — this piece is for me, the DJED PILLAR.

This piece is the first. 
It is white cotton thread stitched on solid black cotton fabric and measures about 12" x 18".  I studied Western Civilization with Rich Donohoe at Napa Valley College and even though I had above a 4.0 GPA, I did extra credit work.  Not that I needed the grade, but because I needed the challenge.

This is the second piece.

I photocopied that stitched piece (shown above) three times, taped (3) 11" x 14" copies together, took that to Kinko's, played around with enlargements and finally had one architectural sized sheet made that is about 42 x 33. 

I then used colored pencils, ink, and paint to add color to the black and white photocopy sheets.

I made a Goddess Garment Cape and painted the Djed Pillar image with gold paint onto the front of this black satin garment.  It is entitled I Am The Goddess Born Of My Mother's Stitches.  First exhibition for this piece was in Leslie Gelber's Goddess Ball as part of her "Beyond the Surface" Conference held at the Double Tree Inn, Sacramento CA. in the late 1990's.


This came about when my mother, Gertrude Scheer Bowers Allen gave me an embroidered cloth for my college graduation gift.  At the same time, Leslie Gelber had invited me to participate in the Goddess Ball at her Beyond The Surface Conference and I had been doing a lot of research using many sources for the art I would make.  When I opened the gift from my mother, there was what I call a consciousness collision and I said aloud to my partner, "I am the Goddess born of my mother's stitches.  I began the making that afternoon.

I fashioned a tunic and skirt from my mother's embroidered dishtowels, crocheting a dishtowel skirt together with red crochet thread.  Underneath, I wore a white silk floor-length tunic.


Over the dishtowel garment, I wore the cloth mother embroidered, the one which sparked this entire work.  I actually connected two of her embroidered cloths together at the shoulder so I was embodied in her embroidery threads.  Over this I wore the black satin cape; multiple layers  that lay Beyond The Surface.

Photo Leslie Gelber c.1999
During the first presentation of this fiber artwork, it was performance art.  The black cape had a zipper on the right shoulder so at a certain point while I was mid-runway, I unzipped the cape, let it fall to the floor, as if my mother's stitches birthed her goddess daughter.  I then carefully removed the ties at the shoulder of her beautiful embroidered cloth to reveal the embroidered dishtowel tunic garment.

After the performance, there were many people, men and women who came up to me with tears in their eyes because the art had touched them deeply.  Some reminisced about their mother's embroideried dishtowels and the childhood memories about those common kitchen cloths.

These Goddess pieces were subsequently exhibited in my final fashion show in 2003.  As a wonderful closure to my Wearable Art Fashion Shows, my daughter Mandi Allen Thompson performed this piece made up of work by her mother and grandmother.   The family cloth spoke again to an audience who were moved by the art.