Janette Gerber
"Shear Joy"
|
|
|
|
|
|
As I collected photos and articles for this project I realized that purses have become a status symbol. There are websites for the declared "purse of the week". Prices range from $2000-$5000 and up. Big house, big car, big ring, big purse, oh my!
In contrast while watching BBC News one evening I heard some figures about the cost of the war and the number of starving people in the world, and that it would take just a small portion of the war expenditures to feed the worlds hungry. The very next day a friend gave me the gift of 1/3 of a goat donation in my name, along with some information about the Heiffer Project. I immediately ordered the children’s book Beatrice’s Goat, a story about what one goat can do for a village.
How could I make sense of the dichotomy of this information?
I am a textile designer and hand weaver, who took communications design classes while studying Art and realize the power of Advertising. Having become aware of it's aim to define our self concepts in one word "big", I wondered if I too might use it to encourage us to share the abundance. I have also worked with taken youth groups to work in an orphanage in Guatemala and am aware of what a small investment of time and or money can do.
In the 1970's I hand wove sheep to sell. I used the same technique to weave my sheep purse. Live sheep can provide milk cheese meat and wool for clothing as well as jobs for the farmer, sheep sheerer, wool processor, spinners, weavers, and knitters etc. Please help yourself to the information about the Heiffer Project and consider bringing, in Heiffer's words "Shear joy to a family in need.”
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |