Reprinted with permission (c) 1999 The Gazette, Cedar Rapids, Iowa
Ursula McCarty grew up baking, sewing and embroidering, things she learned from her mother.
In college, she took an art class in the textile department at the University of Iowa. That class, taught by Iowa City artist Nancy Purington, prompted her to change her major from theater to art.
” I love fabric. I love the stuff of it,” Ursula says. ” I liked working with women and having women as my mentors and encouraging me.”
Ursula, 38, is in that role now. Beyond her position as a lecturer in art at Cornell, Ursula has been working with six at-risk teen-age girls in the Discoveries program at Foundation II in Cedar Rapids.
In July, for two hours a night for two weeks, Ursula and the girls got together in a sewing circle to work on a car cozy. The cozy, like a tea cozy, is made with quilted panels and fits over Ursula’s Ford Explorer. Ursula has shown it at art car displays in Cedar Rapids and Minneapolis. It will be part of an outdoor art display Oct. 29 through 31 at the president’s house on the Cornell campus.
“Some of them were really excited and thought, ‘Hey, this is cool,’ ” Ursula says. ” We had a good time. It was clear to me they felt good about it.
“When I talk to most people about it (the car cozy), they don’t get it. But they (the girls) were interested in it because it was different, and it was something fun to work on.”
After the cozy was completed, Ursula began thinking of another project she and the girls could do together. Someone suggested making quilts for animals at the Cedar Valley Humane Society. They began collecting flannel for the quilts and are close to finishing the project.
“I don’t know how much it means to their lives, but I think this is one small thing they got to feel good about, and somebody’s paying attention to them.”
Ursula says some of the girls had home economics in school, but a lot of them did not know how to sew.
“I like the idea of having the sewing circle,” she says. ” I think it’s important for community. When sewing circles were really big, this was a lot of their social interaction. (Women) could debate politics. This is how they kept in touch with their friends. I like the idea of passing down this tradition.”
Ursula believes the decision to work in textiles is a ” political choice.” She considers herself a feminist. When she came to Cornell in 1992, she began teaching feminist art history.
While in graduate school, when instructors would view her work with fabric, she was told she should settle down and paint.
“People tend to think of textiles as not being real art,” she says. When she receives such criticism, Ursula finds it humorous and amazing.
“It makes me only want to work in textiles all the more, to prove it can be something more than decorative. Part of what it is for me . . . is I want to honor women’s folk art tradition, women who made pot holders and embroidered dish towels. Often it was their only outlet for their creativity.”
In an installation called ” Cleaning the Looking Glass,” Ursula took several sets of ” days of the week” dish towels and created a piece of art. Then there’s the car cozy.
“I get a good response,” Ursula says. ” Some people just think it’s fun, but I think everyone really understands what it’s about. I like that people say, ‘Oh! It’s like a cozy for a car!’
“Most of the time, people don’t realize that I made it with a group. They’re not looking at the individual parts. What I hope is they’ll sort of see this quilt with the pink ruffles on the truck and get the visual pun.” Beyond that, she hopes they will think of community art, of sewing circles, of the history of women’s folk art.
Next up: A 6-by-4 ft. cozy for a playhouse made of pot holders.