Sacred Love / Sacred Lives

An advanced peek at my latest art project for paid subscribers & patrons!

New ideas for art projects come to me in a variety of ways. Almost always, the seeds of an idea are planted over many weeks before I start collecting supplies and setting about creating whatever it is I’ve been envisioning. In the case of my newest series, Sacred Love/Sacred Lives, the ideas began when I first dropped off stickers and pins at 9th & Brick back in July.

9th & Brick is a collective marketplace that hosts a variety of local vendors, including many artists. One such artist, Cat, was there the day I came to set up my display. In their display they have delightful fibre art crochet pieces that lit me up with joy and sparked my own creativity.

A few days later I was listening to an episode of You’re Wrong About¹ with Eric Garcia as the guest. Towards the end of the episode, which is about the eugenics movement in the U.S., Garcia says:

“…disabled love and the ability for disabled people to love others and to love each other, to bring more disabled people into the world or not disabled people in the world is not something to be feared. You shouldn't be afraid to love disabled people and disabled people shouldn't be afraid to love. Because we've seen the horrific consequences of that.”

This struck me so intensely I had to grab my journal and write down: Disabled Love is Sacred.

My dear unicorn had recently made the observation that queer love is alchemy. When she’d said that, I’d written it down too and remarked that it would make a good piece of embroidery.

That night I had a dream about stitching text over and over that read Disabled Love is Sacred, Trans Love is Sacred, Queer Love is Sacred. Disabled Lives are Sacred. Trans Lives are Sacred. Queer Lives are Sacred.

We live in interesting times. As an AFAB² queer human being, there is no other time in history I would choose to live. I have more rights afforded to me than anyone of my intersecting identities in the past would have had. I’m also acutely aware that the decades long work for justice and equity that has given so much to so many is seen as a threat to anyone who believes that the hierarchies of oppressive systems are innate and must be upheld.

Eugenics may no longer be socially acceptable, but barely anyone wears a mask and disabled folks are forced into isolation as a result. The fact that gender is not, in fact, a binary, may be commonly accepted, but trans people struggle to access healthcare while cis people weaponise their platforms to incite hatred and violence against them. Marriage equality may be recognized in many places around the world, but queer folks and their relationships still do not have guaranteed protections.

In creating these pieces I want to uplift the sacredness of living and loving as a disabled person, a trans person, a queer person when human rights are being routinely threatened and rolled back.

I’m not entirely sure how many I will end up creating, but for now I have made a start with three designs, with the intention of making at least three more with ‘Love’ in place of ‘Lives’. Currently I have made the most progress on ‘Queer Lives Are Sacred’, which incorportes a rainbow, trans pride colours, and with the tea tag when it’s done, the Intersex flag.

If you have any thoughts on images you think would work with any of these phrases, please share in the comments. My work is always inspired by many sources and all creative endeavours are to a degree, collaborative.

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1. My current binge-worthy podcast. Mostly what I’m learning is that if it’s possible to scapegoat anyone but a straight white cis man for a terrible thing he did, it will happen and live in the collective mind forever more. Until some plucky millennials come along and ‘Well, actually’ people with their sassy podcast.

2. Assigned Female At Birth. Also, Assumed Female At Birth. I’m trying to stay in the habit of explaining these acronyms since language evolves EXTRA FAST these days and the gap between who is aware of where things are can be vast.