From Guest Artist Jeanne Marklin

Isolation brought to mind so many situations. The social isolation we have been doing since March has had me thinking about the ways that people are isolated. People who live on the street, the ones who are estranged from family, those who have mental health issues and isolate out of fear of others. Those who have no one to turn to in their struggles.
Then I thought of isolation being forced on people and the awful facts of solitary confinement in prisons. Doing some research, I learned that 80,000 or more men, women and children are in solitary confinement in jails and prisons in the United States. It is horrible to face that fact and the consequence of depression, anxiety, panic attacks, the worsening of mental health issues and even psychosis. It is torture that is done with our tax dollars and forgotten by most citizens. 
An example of the horrors of being in jail and forgotten is Albert Woodfox, who was in solitary confinement for 43 years in Angola Prison in Louisiana. Although he was tried 3 times and his case found to be without merit, Louisiana kept taking it back to the courts. He was finally freed at the age of 69. There is no compensation possible for 43 years of your life. The loneliness must have been horrible. We are made to live in community. It is cruel and unusual punishment that must end.
My piece, “Forgotten” represents the dark, cold feelings of being in solitary confinement. The fabric is made from a photograph I took in Siricusa, Sicily of a wet, dark, cobblestoned street.

Forgotten
Name: Jeanne Marklin
Dimensions: 40″ h x 35″ w
Material: Digital print (Spoonflower), cotton and polyester thread
Technique: Machine pieced. Machine quilted, and hand stitched.