"Forced To Flee" The Art Quilt

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"Aleppo" is the name of this art quilt that Anne finally finished and submitted via photographs (much larger than this one) to the juror who will decide what art quilts are chosen. Those pieces chosen will travel the world, well, part of it, for three years. Anne taught in Turkey on US air force bases back in the 1970s. Aleppo was a three hour drive from where she lived and she enjoyed going there to visit the markets, bazaars and to admire the 14th century architecture. The city of Aleppo, Syria has existed since around 600 BC, sitting astride the fabled Silk Road, the trade route to China. When this terrible civil war began, it was a city of nearly five million people. Now after the destructive and indiscriminate bombing by the Syrian government and its Russian allies , there are fewer than one million. The rest were "forced to flee" to refugee camps in Turkey, Jordan, Syria and Greece, their homes and possessions destroyed. Anne felt like she was watching her former neighbors treated as collateral damage in the destruction of this old city. I can't begin to estimate the time she spent on this project, right up to the end of October deadline, but it was at least three months. I do know that I was fixing lots of lunches, cooking lots of dinners in the last few weeks as time grew short. She started over at least twice after critiques from her fellow art quilt groups. It is 38.5" x 55" inches. I think that she finally managed to portray the destruction and the sadness that she felt around it. Please note that there are over 1200 Syrian people depicted here (including the body bags), fleeing to the green buses that will take them to safety, far from what had been their home. I will add a close-up photo of part of this work after comments are made.