AMY MEISSNER
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A second box of mystery.

10/22/2015

22 Comments

 
Maybe you remember a post from last summer, a sun-drenched afternoon on the deck with my girl, a mystery box from a friend in Upstate New York, a bunch of pointy bras, seamed vintage stockings and a couple of spying boys?  

It is mid fall now and another box has come.

This time, from Sweden.
​
Amy Meissner, textile artist | From the post: A second box of mystery | www.amymeissner.com/blog/a-second-box-of-mystery
 
My friend Boel sent it after contacting me to ask if I'd be interested in embroideries and handmade linens from the local Pentecostal church's second-hand shop. I'm always game for this so I sent a list of ideas and colors, she responded with photos. On the day Boel visited the church (her name is pronounced BOO-elle), she said the place was filled with refugees shopping for their new homes. 
Of course, old Swedish handwork is not useful for these families. They have no connection to this history; their own wounded history is as young as yesterday. They need shoes and pots and winter coats. They need space and shelters that angry people won't set on fire.

In the aisles of that church shop roamed the convergence of so many things: 
Lives lived and histories abandoned.
The humanity of making and saving and surviving.
​The hoarding, the discarding. 

Rescue.
​Rebirth.

When Boel told the church volunteers she was shipping linens to an Alaskan artist of Swedish descent, they gave her an enormous discount. These ladies had taken the time to remove crocheted edging from worn bedding because this part was still good. The handwork was still beautiful and valued.
​
Amy Meissner, textile artist | From the post: A second box of mystery | www.amymeissner.com/blog/a-second-box-of-mystery
 
It's been raining here and all the trees have lost their leaves. The mornings are dark when the children go to school. My son slipped on black ice in the driveway not 20 minutes ago and hurt his hand. Anchorage is the same latitude as Stockholm, so I can imagine what it is like in Sweden right now; the darkness and the cold inhospitable to people not used to that northern climate. This week I listened to a Syrian doctor burst into tears in an interview on the radio. The man hadn't slept in four days and kept apologizing for weeping. I was in my studio stitching by hand and didn't realized how hard I was crying until the cat came meowing down the stairs to check on me. This doctor said all he could think about were the people he couldn't help if he took time to rest. He said his country was disappearing.

Sometimes we find rusted needles still embedded in old embroideries. Like someone put the work down and just walked away. At one point, the maker had hope and inspiration and will.
​
​But there are a million things that dissolve hope.

Amy Meissner, textile artist | From the post: A second box of mystery | www.amymeissner.com/blog/a-second-box-of-mystery
Amy Meissner, textile artist | From the post: A second box of mystery | www.amymeissner.com/blog/a-second-box-of-mystery

80-year-old Greek grandmothers meet boats on the beaches of Lesvos, offering to hold babies and sit for hours with bewildered mothers, purchasing fruit every day for displaced children, and there are days when Alaska feels far away already, but standing in my doorway, signing for a blue box from Sweden, I feel removed and guilty for having so much.
​
Amy Meissner, textile artist | From the post: A second box of mystery | www.amymeissner.com/blog/a-second-box-of-mystery
Amy Meissner, textile artist | From the post: A second box of mystery | www.amymeissner.com/blog/a-second-box-of-mystery
  
I'm not going to create art about the world's refugees. I'm not going to pretend I have any answers or throw money in a direction that isn't helpful. But I am going to worry for them and continue telling my children stories about what is happening in the world so they understand that having to go to school or to swimming lessons is a privilege, not a torture, and certainly not everyone's right. That somewhere, somebody's art supplies and books and special clothes and animals all got left behind because their family's wellbeing was more important.

And because we can't directly rescue people today, we will rescue some unwanted things -- items that are the remnants of humanity's need to make and do and mark, remnants of resilience and will.

​And we'll hold stories in our hearts. And we'll revere history. And mend what we can.

​We'll work hard to be kind in this world.
​
Amy Meissner, textile artist | From the post: A second box of mystery | www.amymeissner.com/blog/a-second-box-of-mystery

​*     *     *
​
My friend, Boel Werner, is an artist and a writer. We met in Los Angeles in 2004 at the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators' annual summer conference and somehow never disappeared from one another's lives. We have one of her books about a pair of red pants that comes to life one night, escapes out the window and flies into the world to have an adventure. Flygarbyxorna is one of our family favorites. I'd hate to ever leave it behind.

But I would.

​I would grab my children and I would flee.
​
22 Comments
roxannelasky link
10/22/2015 10:00:15 am

These gifts are in good hands.

Reply
Amy Meissner link
10/23/2015 05:53:58 am

Thank you Roxanne,
You should see my laundry room all strung up with drying cloths. My poor husband walked in and was assaulted by vintage linens. That's a lot of feminine energy to wade through, but he put on his best Swedish accent and said, "So many beautiful things!" Of course he is being a smart a**. Good balance.
XO
Amy

Reply
Liz link
10/22/2015 10:08:27 am

This post brought tears to my eyes.

We live in a land of flood and drought ... wildfires are a very real danger. One day recently, while driving home, I saw smoke in the distance and wondered "What would I do if I lost every thing?" And I realized that there wasn't a single thing I would save if it meant I could have my loved ones safe and sound.

Reply
Amy Meissner link
10/23/2015 06:01:22 am

Hi Liz,
There's nothing like an environmental reality check to put one's emotional life in perspective. In Alaska, there's always the undercurrent of the next "big one," and what it would mean to be completely cut off in this day and age. People worry about having X # of day's worth of food and water and firewood on hand at all times and I flirt with this, but I always come back to the question -- how will I locate my children? What is the New Plan? It's heavy.
XO
Amy

Reply
Kimberley McGill link
10/22/2015 10:17:07 am

Your words have touched my heart today. Thank you.

Reply
Amy Meissner link
10/23/2015 06:05:07 am

Thank you Kimberley,
I appreciate your reading the post and taking the time to comment here. I hope you'll come back ... not all posts are this heavy, but I hope they'll all leave the reader with something to take away and apply to their own creative lives.
XO
Amy

Reply
Geri deGruy link
10/22/2015 11:10:32 am

We forget how others suffer and how fortunate we are. Thank you for the reminder.

Reply
Amy Meissner link
10/23/2015 06:07:40 am

Hi Geri,
I appreciate your comment here. Sometimes I feel like the onslaught of reminders is too much at times, so I'm glad to hear I wasn't just one more voice squawking at you. As always, I'm thankful for the readership.
XO
Amy

Reply
Mo Crow link
10/22/2015 11:18:41 am

you write with such clarity deep into the heart of the matter

Reply
Amy Meissner link
10/23/2015 06:14:50 am

Thank you Mo,
I think the heart of any matter is how it resonates against our own beat. For most of us, this is our own homes and children. I don't know what it will take to reach the blackest, most shriveled hearts, but it's within us all to begin at home.
XO
Amy

Reply
Susan Waugh
10/22/2015 02:44:57 pm

This moved me to tears.

Reply
Amy Meissner link
10/23/2015 06:15:56 am

Dear Susan,
Then we weep together.
XO
Amy

Reply
Jan
10/22/2015 04:45:17 pm

Touching sentiments and very timely ones. Thank you Amy. Our messages to our children are very important. The rescuing of art heritage pieces is equally important and knows no barriers.

Reply
Amy Meissner link
10/23/2015 06:20:50 am

Thank you Jan,
I really like the way you've put this and will ponder the idea further ('cause that's the way I be). I think this is why handwork is so important to me: community, history, value and will, AND the lack of barriers begins to pick at another important piece.
XO
Amy

Reply
Michelle
10/22/2015 10:36:30 pm

Ok, now I'm crying...beautiful post Amy!

Reply
Amy Meissner link
10/23/2015 06:21:53 am

Oh Michelle,
We are a weepy bunch, aren't we?
XO
Amy

Reply
Bozena Wojtaszek link
10/23/2015 04:22:47 am

Thank you for this post, Amy. You've got a talent to capture difficult feelings in words so eloquently.

And you are right - this is the simplest way we all can help to the world's refugees. With our thoughts, feelings and minds. And this makes a difference,
Thank you.

Reply
Amy Meissner link
10/23/2015 06:30:37 am

Bozena,
Thank you so much for commenting here. I'm glad you feel it makes a difference ... I'm currently in a mind space that feels very discouraged and removed from this global issue. It's just as weighty to see what is happening in my own community, which is fraught with its own forms of displacement and discrimination.
I'm glad you took the time to read and reach out--
XO
Amy

Reply
Alexandra Panagopoulou link
11/10/2015 01:35:31 pm

Searching Pinterest I came across a picture with your beautiful artwork and proceeded to read your blog.I was deeply touched reading your comments on the refugees and the behaviour of greek people towards them.Unfortunately European leaders remain untouched by this tragedy and and most of the european countries do nothing to stop it.But we greeks, will continue to help those people in spite of our economical problems.

Reply
Amy Meissner link
11/10/2015 02:00:26 pm

Dear Alexandra,
I am deeply touched that you have taken the time to respond to my writing with your own sincere words. I'm also amazed that with all this ability to connect, sight unseen like we just have, that it is so difficult for the rest of the world to connect to what is so clearly right in front of them. I wish you well and I know that you have a good heart.
Blessings,
Amy

Reply
K N Goodrich link
8/13/2018 05:38:57 pm

Amy--
This is such an amazingly thoughtful perspective. Thank you.
--K

Reply
Amy Meissner link
8/14/2018 06:31:24 am

K, Thank you so much for taking the time to read and comment here. I appreciate your kind words.
XO
Amy

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    Amy Meissner, textile artist. Photo credit Brian Adams, 2013. www.amymeissner.com

    Amy Meissner

    Artist in Anchorage, Alaska, sometimes blogging about the collision of history, family & art, with the understanding that none exists without the other.

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