Allow me to present Jeanne Hewell-Chambers. Jeanne is, in a word, extraordinary. She does ordinary things, in ordinary ways, with ordinary people. She is different, though, bigger and bolder than ordinary folk. Jeanne stitches the ordinariness of life events in a way that leaves you an awestruck witness to the extraordinary. She stitches magnanimously. And she stitches with a beautiful person.
I met Jeanne online about three years ago. At that time, I became fascinated with the project she’d been working on and writing about—a contemporary fiber-based art project she does with her sister-in-law, Nancy, who’s differently abled.
Nancy doesn’t speak. Specifically, she doesn’t speak audibly more than a handful of words. Instead, she scribbles her own special language on paper, and then Jeanne transcribes those thoughts and drawings—with embroidery…
