Pictorial Hooked Rugs

The “new woman” surrounded by nourishing women – artists, writers, bread winners – all the women around – historic figures who have gone before – have hands and arms outstretched giving themselves to the new woman. ...Dorothy Sauber.

Women gather around their children doing their work, enjoying each other’s company. And the men position themselves at the windows. ...Dorothy Sauber.

The world over, age after age, the woman body has been employed as a
beast of burden. Bent over, hauling, carrying, the shouldering, the woman body continues in the non ending labor. ...Dorothy Sauber.

The union movement among the textile workers made the song with the same title famous. Today women workers are still struggling for fair wage and better conditions. We are still fighting for both the bread and the roses. ...Dorothy Sauber.

Fire, a hand over a heart on fire, uncontainable flames. A woman’s body held in bondage by thorny vines. The hand of a gray figure – male, ghost, domineering, controlling. Fire from her heart and her vagina. Other fires caused or “cure” of female fire. House on fire, bed on fire, killed by fire, running from fire. Around the border perennial rose – red and blacks – with a few skulls set about.
The piece expresses some of the complex dialectic of fire and passion. The hand over the fire is mine. Traced around my flattened hand I placed myself in the piece. The many levels of passion and pain have traced from my own private thoughts, reading, thinking about the history of feminism, and searching for connections. Fire connects all of these levels of realities. ...From Dorothy Sauber's journal

give (giv), v.t. to bestwo; confer without price or reward; grant; yield; deliver; supply; enable; emit: v.i. convey gratuitously; yield to pressure; retire; retreat; shrink: n. act of giving up.. Webster's Dictionary ...Dorothy Sauber.

Feminization of poverty. The newspapers report the grim reality of increasing poverty among women. It is a view difficult to see for those with ample bread. For those without bread the view of those with is painfully clear. ...Dorothy Sauber.

I have heard about “The Business Jack Built" and so I did this piece about “The House Jane Built". House after house has been built by women to sustain lives of creativity, work, hope, and love. ...Dorothy Sauber.

A significant day worthy of a hooked rug, I had gone to an International Women’s Day celebration and the link to women of the world prompted this design. One woman is from Latin America, the others from Slavic nations, East Asia, China, and Africa. ...Dorothy Sauber.

The flow of people is endless. From bush to prairie, from nation to nation, and from rural life to industrial centers the flow of people is endless. ...Dorothy Sauber.

In 1980 I learned that my great grandmother, Ellen Geehan, had made a hooked rug picturing a black horse. Her rug was last seen in 1926 when her family helped her move off the farm. This rug is for her and all the women with whom I am a direct link. ...Dorothy Sauber

My grandmother quilted with many women. My mother and I quilted together.
And I quilt alone. The quilts made by those many hands shine in my memory like so many gathered rows of stars. ...Dorothy Sauber

The creative process is a lot like gardening. Germinating takes place in the mysterious caverns of the soil. Fruition is the wondrous result of careful tending. ...Dorothy Sauber.

Clockwise the panels represent George Sands, Alice Walker, Willa Cather, Tillie Olsen, Sylvia Plath, and Colette. Each author in turn represents hundreds of other women writers who walked the different path of being creative and being a woman. ...Dorothy Sauber.

Workers look on as their jobs disappear into the black pit of the recession. On all sides the people gather together, members of the same union of the unemployed. ...Dorothy Sauber.

Women Against War (Historically there have always been women active against war. Our time is no different. ...Dorothy Sauber.

Gathered on the couch with their laughter and their tears, the women spill over into the lives of each other. ...Dorothy Sauber

Wool dropping from sheep into a spinner turning into brightly colored spools and flowing into woven cloth of seven colors. Yarn deserves its due. ...Dorothy Sauber.