You Are Here announces the opening of Stitches. The exhibition showcases YAH Resident Artist Pamelajean Werner,  YAH Satellite Artist Jess Higo Walbridge, and guest artist Imani Russell.  Werner has decades of experience as a weaver and maker of rag quilts. Her work is inspired by both traditional and contemporary insights. Walbridge is a master crocheter whose intention is “to bring ‘women’s work’ into a fine art setting” with her references to monsters and powerful women. She has developed her body of work by morphing classical concepts, feminist undertones, and monstrous themes into unexpected fiber pieces.  Washington DC area artist, Imani Russell (indigo’s friends.com) creates her cloth dolls using worn clothing, found fabrics and unusual objects: a tradition passed down from her mother and grandmother.  She is inspired by the Gullah, a distinctive group of African Americans originally rooted in the southeastern U.S. during the 18th century.  Their origins in Sierra Leone endowed them with immunity to malaria that often left them surviving their slave masters, so they were able to cultivate and sustain a unique culture that still survives as a national treasure.  Russell says, “Natozake Shange’s novel Sassafras, Cypress and Indigowas my introduction to Gullah culture. . .This story still informs my work.”