Contributed Photo / Jessica Wohl is pictured at her studio at Stove Works with with an in-progress artwork made using hand-pieced quilt blocks and used men's T-shirts.A few years ago, Sewanee, Tennessee, artist Jessica Wohl had an idea for an art exhibit.
The University of the South associate professor of art pondered the question: "What would the world feel like if, from the beginning of time, it had been run by women?"
Using this concept of matriarchy as her guiding light, she settled on an exhibit of vibrant, handmade quilts, a project that blended her love of textiles with the traditional quilting art form. Wohl said using fabric as a canvas for art suits her. She likes the feel of sewing materials and thinks it might be genetic.
"My great-grandfather was a tailor, and my mother crocheted," Wohl said in a phone interview. "There were always needles and thread around in my family."
The 2021 exhibit at the University of the South's University Art Gallery was called "Imagining Matriarchy" and was described as a collection of quilts made from "brilliantly colored found fabrics to build complex, celebratory compositions."
Eventually, the quilt exhibit inspired a community service effort Wohl calls "The Free Patch Work Project." Wohl started using colorful fabrics and artistic stitching to repair old, worn clothing items that held sentimental or aesthetic value to their owners. Anyone at the university can bring her a garment and choose from a selection of fabric samples for their patches; or they can simply say: "Surprise me."
Now, on her walks around the University of the South, Wohl often sees the fruits of her labor.
"There was one time a guy was riding his bike, and I was riding behind him," she recalls. "I stopped him and said, 'I'm so sorry to stop you, but I'm the one who mended your pants.'"
Other reclamation projects have included a beloved pair of pants she repaired for a campus chaplain, and a favorite L.L. Bean jacket that a student brought to her for patching, explaining it had belonged to his grandfather.
On Feb. 18, Wohl, who is on a semester sabbatical from the University of the South, will present a free workshop at Stove Works, a nonprofit artist organization at 1250 E. 13th St. Wohl is a February artist in residence at Stove Works. At the workshop, from 1-3 p.m., she will teach participants how to mend old, well-loved clothing with an artistic flourish. (See Stove Works' website for sign-up.)
She is also bringing her Free Patch Work Project to Chattanooga. People who have cherished garments they would like patched or repaired can take them to the workshop or drop them off at Stove Works through February. Wohl said the turnaround time for patching might be weeks to a few months, but she hopes to involve her art students at the University of the South in the project if demand is high.
Besides being an outlet for artistic expression, Wohl said the patches serve an environmental mission, too. Unlike so-called fast fashions -- trendy inexpensive clothing -- that can be wasteful, the Free Patch Work Project aims to keep older garments in circulation, conserving labor and materials.
"At the heart of this project is an attempt to begin to repair the world through acts of love and kindness," Wohl said. "I wanted to do this as a gesture, not labor for money. I want to do this to create connectivity and make the world a little better."
"Life Stories" publishes on Mondays. Contact Mark Kennedy at mkennedy@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6645.