Sampler Series
American schoolgirl embroideries have come to light as examples of young girls formal education. They were often the only formal education a young girl received. Interestingly they were produced not in the home but under the private “school” tutelage of a specific teacher with aesthetic consideration transferred through mentorship. Also embedded in the tradition of samplers is domestic preparedness such as darning, imitating lace making through the translation of lace patterns, stitching alphabets and inscriptions, family record samplers, and the old adage “idle hands make the devil’s work”.
These samplers are based in the joyful, boundless acquisition of learning my extraordinary daughter engages in daily. Unrepressed, her early writing included pretend math and writing (in both print and cursive,) fake genealogies, and the organizing and listing of a myriad of things in our home. She has grown up in the context of samplers hanging in her grand parents home dating back to the early 1800’s. Working in the sampler tradition, why not juxtapose and credit her experience and rethink the girl child as exuberant and self willed ? The “Sampled Series” seeks to balance the tradition of samplers with the contemporary empowered girls’ take on things.