I'm Kelsey: a lifetime hobby artist and mother of three - including my three year old liocorn, Emilia! Creating this piece has been a tribute to my experience of motherhood in so many ways. Growing up in Eastern Kentucky, I have always been surrounded by maternal love in the form of hand stitched quilts, even after those women were gone. Through the years I learned those skills myself, and its an honor to bring a bit of Appalachian love to the big city. I was inspired to create this scene by the poem Welcome to Holland by Emily Perl Kingsley, a tribute in itself to mothering in a way we didnt expect. This project often had me feeling like I was in over my head and unsure of what move to make next - but if that ain't symbolic of motherhood, I don't know what is.

A patchwork scene inspired by Emily Perl Kingsley's 1984 Welcome to Holland. This piece utlilizes both hand and machine quilting, creating texture from using a variety of textiles and techniques. The scene transitions from a darker, stormy scene to a brighter view with sun shining on the path. Finishing touches include hand-embroidery and watercolor.

Title: Walk With Me

Medium: Mixed media

Dimension: 16"x20", black floating frame

I am often asked to describe the experience of raising a child with a disability - to try to help people who have not shared that unique experience to understand it, to imagine how it would feel. It's like this......

When you're going to have a baby, it's like planning a fabulous vacation trip - to Italy. You buy a bunch of guide books and make your wonderful plans. The Coliseum. The Michelangelo David. The gondolas in Venice. You may learn some handy phrases in Italian. It's all very exciting.

After months of eager anticipation, the day finally arrives. You pack your bags and off you go. Several hours later, the plane lands. The flight attendant comes in and says, "Welcome to Holland."

"Holland?!?" you say. "What do you mean Holland?? I signed up for Italy! I'm supposed to be in Italy. All my life I've dreamed of going to Italy."

But there's been a change in the flight plan. They've landed in Holland and there you must stay.

The important thing is that they haven't taken you to a horrible, disgusting, filthy place, full of pestilence, famine and disease. It's just a different place.

So you must go out and buy new guide books. And you must learn a whole new language. And you will meet a whole new group of people you would never have met.

It's just a different place. It's slower-paced than Italy, less flashy than Italy. But after you've been there for a while and you catch your breath, you look around.... and you begin to notice that Holland has windmills....and Holland has tulips. Holland even has Rembrandts.

But everyone you know is busy coming and going from Italy... and they're all bragging about what a wonderful time they had there. And for the rest of your life, you will say "Yes, that's where I was supposed to go. That's what I had planned."

And the pain of that will never, ever, ever, ever go away... because the loss of that dream is a very very significant loss.

But... if you spend your life mourning the fact that you didn't get to Italy, you may never be free to enjoy the very special, the very lovely things ... about Holland.

Emily Perl Kingsley

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