The Three of Hearts, 1993

28" x 18"

Stencilled cottons. Machine pieced, hand appliquéd and hand quilted. 28" x 18". Photo credit: Breger and Associates.

Part of A Full Deck, comprised of 54 individual quilts, each representing a card from a standard playing deck.] Collection: Originally purchased by Nancy and Warren Brakensiek, who later donated the whole Deck to Visions Museum of Textile Art, San Diego, CA.

Hearts are perilous things. They are prone to breaking; they are known to attack you. The heart, seat of emotions and blood pump of all animal life, suffers every indignity of clichéd and sentimental representation. Please remember that before the greeting card industry existed, hearts were the favored food of the Aztec gods. The Aztecs believed the gods were mortal. If not properly nourished with "precious water" (human blood) and "red cactus fruit" (human hearts) the gods would die, and all life would perish. Here, two victims have just made the ultimate sacrifice on the twin altars of the temple. A third victim is falling down the steep steps of the temple. His heart wafts towards the sun god, who eagerly awaits his ration of food and drink. The purposely naive style of the images is in imitation of manuscripts contemporary to the Conquest of Mexico. Many of the details are drawn from a variety of Aztec arts.

Although the subject matter is very different from my previous quilts, there are some common elements. Once again, there is a strong architectural motif. Things fall down: even as the third heart wafts upwards, it trails a stream of blood down towards the falling sacrificial victim. There is the oblique and uneasy reference to organized religion. And of course, there is writing, without which no quilt of mine would be complete.