You Can't Use My Sayings: THUMB

You Can't Use My Sayings: DANGER

Stitched Deaths: Sadako Sasaki

(d. Oct. 25, 1955)

Left behind on a bench at Hasbro Children's Hospital, Providence, RI.

Quote is a Basho haiku:
A caterpillar
this deep in fall --
still not a butterfly

 <FINAL>

Stitched Deaths: Ricky Wilson/Matthew Shepard

(d. Oct. 12, 1985/98)

Left behind in the bushes near the I-95 highway on-ramp, Allens Ave, Providence.
(in tribute to Roy Weber)

Quote is from the film, Philadelphia.
It's the translation of the Umberto Giordano aria "Andrea Chenier"
"Live still, I am life. I am divine. I am oblivion. I am the god that comes from the heavens and makes of the earth a heaven. I am love! I am love."

Stitched Deaths: Edgar Allan Poe

(d. Oct. 7, 1849)

Left behind at the fountain in front of the Providence Athenaeum.

Quote is his last. In a delirious state, Poe called out the name, "Reynolds!" over and over again while held in a prison-like hospital. A man of words, he was reduced to near incomprehension in his last days.

Stitched Deaths: Anne Sexton

(d. Oct. 4, 1974)

Left behind on the gate of the Jamaica Plain branch of the Boston Public Library after a performance at the Aviary Gallery in homage to the poet.

Quote is from "Letter Written on a Ferry Crossing Long Island Sound"
"I am surprised to see/that the ocean is still going on"

  

Stitched Deaths: Carson McCullers

(d. Sept. 29, 1967)

Left behind at Cricket Field in Greystone, RI on the edge of a pond.
(The frog saw everything.)

Quote:
" Son, do you know how love should be begun?A tree. A rock. A cloud."
- Carson McCullers, from the short story - A Tree. A Rock. A Cloud.

Stitched Deaths: Steven Stayner

(d. Sept. 17, 1989)

Left behind at the Hathaway Center, Providence, RI

Quote is from the film, Magnolia:
"It's dangerous to confuse children with angels."
 

Stitched Deaths: Mary The Elephant

(d. Sept. 13, 1916)

Mary was hanged from a crane in front of 2,500 people (some children) in Erwin, Tennessee.

Pillow was hung from the railing on the steps of the Dunkin Donuts Center, Providence, RI.

Quote:  
" For there is no folly of the beast of the earth which is not infinitely outdone by the madness of men." - passage from Moby Dick.

Stitched Deaths: Christy Brown

(d. Sept. 7, 1981)

Left behind at (or rather, gifted to) Ada Books, Providence, RI

Quote is from the film, My Left Foot.

Stitched Deaths: American Originals

Elvis Presley (d. Aug. 16, 1977)
Babe Ruth (d. Aug. 16, 1948)
Robert Johnson (d. Aug. 16, 1938)

Presley quote is from an interview. Placed on the midway at Rocky Point, RI

Ruth quote is from his Yankee teammate, Joe Dugan. Placed outside McCoy Stadium, Pawtucket, RI

Johnson quote is from "Me and the Devil Blues." Placed at Bishop Hill Tavern, Johnston, RI


---Triple Threat Saturday---

Stitched Portraits: Lily Tomlin

(b. Sept. 1, 1939)

Who doesn't love her?! Not me.

As for this portrait - I'm sharing it now because it is one of my favorites and it'll be featured in a large group show happening at the training school near the ACI. Here is a link for more info.

Lily (as Edith Ann):

Stitched Deaths: Jason Damron

(d. July 16, 2011)

Left behind at the Temple to Music, Roger Williams Park in Providence, RI

Quote is from the lead track of Danny and the Nightmares' self-titled debut.

You Can't Use My Sayings: MEOW

Stitched Deaths: Anneliese Michel

(d. July 1, 1976)

Placed in the arms of St. Michael, the Archangel
Outside St. Michael's Church, Esmond, RI

Quote: "I want to suffer for other people, but this is so cruel. People think it's all over after death. It goes on." - Anneliese Michel, diary/exorcism transcript

You Can't Use My Sayings: WITCHES

You Can't Use My Sayings: PRESENTS

Stitched Deaths: GG Allin

(d. Jun. 28, 1993)

Left behind in a urinal at the Scurvy Dog, Providence, RI
Stitched GG chest tattoo

Stitched Deaths: Molly Bish

(d. Jun. 27, 2000)

Placed in a lifeguard chair at Spring Lake Beach, Glendale, RI
Quote is from Rilke's Sonnets to Orpheus.

You Can't Use My Sayings: CLOWNS

You Can't Use My Sayings: HANDS

You Can't Use My Sayings: By Sparrow

Stitched Deaths: James Gandolfini

(d. Jun. 19, 2013)

Left behind at the fountain in DePasquale Square - Federal Hill - Providence, RI

Quote is from an episode of The Sopranos.

Stitched Portraits: LeVar Burton

(b. Feb. 16, 1957)

Due to the recent revival of Reading Rainbow and his retort directed at naysayers, I thought it was an appropriate time to celebrate LeVar Burton. Here he is in his stitched birthday portrait from 2013:

Stitched Deaths: Dr. George Tiller

(d. May 31, 2009)

Quote is from Tiller.

Pillow left behind at Women's Medical Center of Rhode Island.

Stitched Deaths: Bonnie and Clyde

(d. May 23, 1934)

Left on the stage at AS220, Providence, RI.
Quote is from a poem by Bonnie, a premonition of her end, written for her mother:

They call them cold-blooded killers;
They say they are heartless and mean;
      But I say this with pride,
      That I once knew Clyde
When he was honest and upright and clean.
But the laws fooled around,
Kept taking him down
And locking him up in a cell,
      Till he said to me,
      "I'll never be free,
So I'll meet a few of them in hell."
The road was so dimly lighted;
There were no highway signs to guide;
      But they made up their minds
      If all roads were blind,
They wouldn't give up till they died. 
If a policeman is killed in Dallas,
And they have no clue or guide;
      If they can't find a fiend,
      They just wipe their slate clean
And hand it on Bonnie and Clyde.
There's two crimes committed in America
Not accredited to the Barrow mob;
      They had no hand
      In the kidnap demand,
Nor the Kansas City depot job.
A newsboy once said to his buddy;
"I wish old Clyde would get jumped;
      In these awful hard times
      We'd make a few dimes
If five or six cops would get bumped."
The police haven't got the report yet,
But Clyde called me up today;
      He said, "Don't start any fights
      We aren't working nights
We're joining the NRA."
From Irving to West Dallas viaduct
Is known as the Great Divide,
      Where the women are kin,
      And the men are men,
And they won't "stool" on Bonnie and Clyde.
If they try to act like citizens
And rent them a nice little flat,
      About the third night
      They're invited to fight
By a sub-gun's rat-tat-tat.
They don't think they're too tough or desperate,
They know that the law always wins;
      They've been shot at before,
      But they do not ignore
That death is the wages of sin.
Some day they'll go down together;
And they'll bury them side by side;
      To few it'll be grief
      To the law a relief
But it's death for Bonnie and Clyde. 

- Bonnie Parker

Stitched Deaths: Emily Dickinson

(d. May 15, 1886)

Left behind on the porch of a private residence in Providence, RI.

Words were Dickinson's last.

Stitched Deaths: John Wayne Gacy

(d. May 10, 1994)

My unnamed accomplice and I took a trip to the KFC on Atwood Avenue in Johnston, RI to eat a Double Down and leave a pillow behind, reuniting John Wayne Gacy with his last meal.

No altercations were had between artists and apathetic part-timers.

Stitched Deaths: Easter Rising

(d. May 4, 1916)

Joseph Plunkett
William Pearce
Edward Daly
Michael O'Hanrahan

Irish rebels executed for their part in the Easter Rising of 1916

Placed in the window of Trinity Brewhouse, Providence, RI

Stitched Deaths: Linda Lovelace

(d. Apr. 22, 2002)

Left in a bathroom stall at the Historic Columbus Theatre
Quote is from the Lovelace Memoir, Ordeal.