A few years ago, I was reading book reviews and saw a title, "When The Women Come Out To Dance."  I have no idea what the book was about--this image and its message flashed to me.  Women have forever toiled physically, mentally, and emotionally for others.  We have arisen each day to cook, clean, wash, mend, plant, and harvest.  We have fulfilled our duties to our parents and mates, borne and reared the children, cared for the sick and elderly, and served neighbor, church, country.  All this we are supposed to do with humor and happiness before, or without, acknowledging our own dreams and needs.  But in this piece, our spirits leave our bodies in sleep to meet in a clearing to dance wildly under the moon.  We sing, shout, and move however we please.  In secret sisterhood we offer support and sustenance to each other because we must return to our duties before the sun rises.
       This was hand appliqued, embroidered, beaded, and quilted.  The colors had to be vibrant and wild, the movement abandoned and individual, every person and thing sparkling and alive to suggest the depth and breadth and heighth of the inner, and so often denied, lives of women.   (16 3/4" x 13 1/2")