Artist James Miller is new to Sechelt, recently settling here after teaching art and math in various countries in the Middle East and Japan. Like many others, he was shocked when a gunman entered a school in Connecticut last December and shot 26 people, mostly children. It got Miller thinking about guns and why we need them.
"We'd like to rid the world of the need to use weapons," he said, and he wondered what stands in the way of countries agreeing to control their distribution? Is it fear? "One person's terrorist is another person's patriot," he points out.
He turned to the website of America's National Rifle Association (NRA) to learn their side of the story as to why people keep guns. His perception was that none of the NRA's activities had been curtailed because of the slaying.
Miller was even more shocked to find that in the NRA's on-line shop, the organization was selling bibs for babies with the initials NRA on them as a way of teaching children about America's Second Amendment, the right to bear arms. The product is listed as "infant bib" and sells for $7.95 along with other items for kids, including a Daisy model BB gun.
"It was the incongruity of it," Miller said, shaking his head.
He decided to create an artwork to voice his opinion and came up with the idea of a quilt, his first ever.
"What's more American than a quilt?" he said.
As an artist he tends to work in whatever medium seems to suit the project. The machine stitched quilt is large (approximately two metres by 2.5 metres) and it shows 26 cloth bibs, each one marked with a letter of the alphabet. Each child's name and birth date is stitched on a bib in memory of their short lives. The bottom row of the quilt displays bibs for the adults who were also shot that day trying to protect the children. Many of the parents of those who have died have become active in promoting gun control, and Miller would be pleased if the quilt was to be shown in Sandy Hook, Conn., in support of revising gun regulations.
On the reverse, hidden, is a bib for the killer, Adam Lanza.
"After all, he died too," Miller said. "I hope the quilt will be well received, although I amsure there will be those who won't approve."
Some find the title of the piece offensive.
Across the top Miller has stitched the words, "Death from A to Z, by Adam Lanza, Dec. 14, 2012". The bottom of the quilt says, "Sandy Hook Elementary School, Newtown, Connecticut."
"Art can do a lot of things," he said. "Sometimes it shocks."
He describes how when Picasso painted Guernica, to depict the suffering of people and animals from war, it was a graphic and provocative statement. The quilt remembers the children who died, he said, but he didn't want to soften the message by using something other than the bibs.
As his artist's statement, he notes: "I believe there needs to be a sensible debate over gun control in the United States and that the NRA needs to be willing to participate in discussions to find ways to preserve the Second Amendment while limiting the amount of deadly force people can have in their possession in the form of a rifle or pistol."
Because reaction to art is personal, a potential venue for displaying the quilt has turned down his offer on the grounds that it might offend customers. Miller is still awaiting word from another retail store as to whether it can be shown this month, and he hopes to display it at the forthcoming Sunshine Coast Quilters' Guild show in May. If that fails, he will turn to galleries in hopes of finding the controversial quilt a home.
