Does Textile Art Reflect Its Environment?

I participate on a few lists and monitor a lot more. One of the current questions is why is American Quilting so non reflective of it's origins. One of my theories is that the corporate world spreads a sameness over communities much as we would take a spatula and put frosting on a cake. Here's my response to one such query:

I can not speak for the rest of the american textile world. However, there is not one america nor even fifty states. The physical geography is so varied. The cohesivness of individual communities creates many cultures. Even the cities are quite distinct from one another if you really look. The northeast, to me, has a lot in common with Europe in the old sections due to the rowhouses.

Add to that that nineteenth century agrarian america has passed through the industrial revolution and is well into the technological revolution. I do not know the statistics. My intuition tells me that over the last two hundred years one of the things that has not changed markedly is the radius of travel of the common man.

Cities, metropolises, have citizens who have never left their general surroundings, usual neighboroods, for several generations. The ability to SEE is an inborn skill. Our society tends to pummel it out of us as we crow. I cynically call my own upbringing the three monkeys upgringing: See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil. It was prescription for dumbing down a questioning youth to create obedience and apathy. I did not escape unscathed but escape I did.

I can hear all the murmurs of dissent; but I go here, there, and elsewhere. Yes, maybe so; but do you take the eyes of our ancestral surroundings or do you go with the wonder and innocence and questioning of a small child?

None of this is meant unkindly. It is based in part on my observations of my husband. Remember as I say this that I do truly love the man. He is a pattern of many people: stoic, placid, unquestioning, unseeing, apparently unwilling or unaware of the possibility of change. There is nothing wrong with a life lived in that mode. I am incredibly fortunate that he is note only supportive but acts as the patron who allows me my art.

All this in rumination about how art reflects not only what we see but how we perceive what is around us. The image is a detail from a work called All Is Right With the World. It is an agave, or in my fey sense of humor, the tequila plant. The coatimundi in the lower left corner is at it's northernmost habitat here in Sonora. The yellow flowers of the brittlebush remind one that they grow wild even where man has tampered with the environment. You see the band of blue? It has beads to remind us of the lupine. The band of red reminds you of Indian Paint Brush. The background shows you the undulations of the valley giving way to the mountains.

Yes, American quilting and American art does sometimes reflect it's environment. One of these days I'll get the whole image of All Is Right With the World up on my website. Probably in October as I am preoccupied with taking the current exhibition overseas.