Every piece of art is different. Some are small in intent, some are large. Some are decoration, some are distractions, some stick to the soul, some tell important stories.

With her new quilt, Maria has gone big.

I think this new quilt, now and finally for sale,  is the most ambitious work of art that she has yet attempted. Yes, I am biased, but that doesn’t make me dumb.

The quilt came from the heart, from her own life, and from her deep connection to the lives of other women, especially those countless souls who have been left voiceless and in some ways, imprisoned by a system of life they did not create and cannot control and have been trying forever to escape.

She calls this mega-work – it is big in scope and vision – “How To Keep Your Husband,” but that is a play on irony and words. The truth is that the quilt is about how to keep yourself, and how to be yourself in a world that has so often stolen the story of women selfishly and cruelly.

In this sense, a metaphorical sense,  this is a very large piece of art.

It is a big work that is more than a wall-hanging or bed-covering, although it also those things.

Her idea to weave this demeaning and oppressive ideas about women into the new and powerful ideas about empowerment and equality has done something only art can do in this way: it has made sexism small, even ridiculous.

It takes the suffocating real and true ideas about women – please your man, never get mad –  and their subservience to men, and wraps them in series of powerful quotes.

These quotes are from strong women women – Marge Piercy, Clarrissa Estes Pinkola, Lizzo –  who warn that being themselves can often cause them to be exiled from themselves, but more importantly, to be exiled from others.

This is where much of Maria’s work has been leading  ever since we met – she loves her potholders, but she is always moving towards finding her voice, being herself, even when it has meant being exiled by others, including her own family.

Like all artists, she worries sometimes about money and sales, she loves her potholders and could make them happily all day.

But she is also called to a larger vision of art, of life, to herself as well. I have so much respect for that, our world calls us again and again to take the easy way out, to worry about money first.

We have both chosen a different path. Maria is walking quite bravely on hers.

This quilt is a flag and a testament, as well as a piece of art. I think it is an anthem, for her, for so many others.

You can read about this quilt on her blog. You can look at it or buy it here.

The good news is that Maria is no longer exiled from herself, and that is the story of this quilt, where women have gone, where women are going. It’s in the air.

This quilt is for another woman on that path, it’s part of the history of women, new and old.

I’d buy it myself if she would sell it to me (she won’t.)

Take a look at this new story in her own words. The quilt is $500, it took a long time to do, and is available on her Etsy Shop. Good for you, Maria, I am so grateful and proud to have lived to see you singing your song so proudly and beautifully.

You have joined the ranks of artists who really want their work to matter. In our greedy and divided time, that is heroic to me.