Design by Jeneen Metz
My heritage is actually quite mixed and complicated in terms of relationships, [with] one grandparent the direct product of a slave and the slave owner. Although different native tribes are part of [my] heritage on both maternal and paternal sides, [our family does] not mention these family members much. In fact, the idea of pain, as time has progressed, has also become synonymous with silence. I realized as I worked through this project with [Liberty] and a swath of anonymous people that a fair amount of my family's history and pain lies in all of the stories that we did not share.
As best as I could, I expressed in this design that truth. [Surrounding a symbolic envelope,] pieces of textiles from Native American and African American cultures serve as petals. Much like a petal that falls off of a flower, each one can be quite beautiful on its own, representing part of, but not the whole, flower. This is where I sit with my family history: incomplete truth - some light, some dark - the flower of our history reduced to petals.
- Jeneen Metz
