Inheritance in Blue

This tapestry piece is a meditation on home in the context of loss and climate grief that the last two years has brought sharply into focus. The design stems from a photograph of me holding one of the many tools I inherited from my Grandpappy, Fred Whisler, who worked graveyards at a petrochemical plant in south Texas. With an infamous history of environmental contamination and worker safety violations, the plant where he worked took an immeasurable toll on the beautiful people and rich coastal marshes my family has called home for generations. As I use my Grandpappy’s tools to maintain my looms and my own home in the Valley, I am reminded of the sacrifices that the working class people and places that shaped me endured for the sake of profit — and I hold onto hope that from our ancestors, we have inherited all the tools we need to create an economy that nourishes people and the planet we call home.