Los Gatos Weekly-Times

Photograph by Robert Scheer

Apron artist Maryln Mori (front) with Bonnie Stone. Mori spent 18 months turning her original white apron into a personal expression. "It almost has a life of its own." she said.

Life Stories on Aprons

By Michelle Gabriel

Imagine having to define the very essence of yourself on a piece of fabric shaped like an apron. What choices would be made to answer the questions: Who was I? Who am I? What did I want to be? Who did I have to be?

The result of that challenge is the basis for a new exhibit by Saratoga artist Bonnie Stone, opening at the Fellowship Gallery in Los Gatos April 21 and continuing through May 19.

Titled ". . . No Fuss At All. . . Women's Aprons' Narratives," Stone's exhibit explores the lives of 20 women, from 28 to 81 years of age, through their personal stories created on blank apron canvases.

The narratives, sewn, painted, glued, stapled and/or pinned onto the fabric of the apron, represent the women's experiences with cancer, divorce, art, aging, the loss of a loved one and, one by one, self-discovery, as "told" through their aprons.

Saratoga resident Maryln Mori is one of the 20 women who participated in what the women affectionately call "Bonnie's apron project."

Mori says that when first approached by her longtime friend to create an apron narrative, she was intrigued.

"As a painter I thought this was a very innovative idea, something that has never been done before," she says.

At first, Mori says she had no idea what she was going to do with her apron.

"In time, it took a life of its own as it began to go beyond being just an apron and became part of me and who I am."

In creating her "story," Mori used various items and "stuff" she accumulated in 33 years of marriage and having lived in two houses over those years. She used letters to spell out her husband's name, included name labels from her children's clothes, a coffee cup filled with flowers, and running shoes to represent "my years of running in Adidas Marathon Trainers." Stamped and postmarked envelopes were included to denote a love of letter-writing, a pen and pencil to reflect her interest in creative writing, and a Japanese soup ladle and paintbrush to represent her attempt at "integrating wife, mother and painter for a balanced self-identity."

The apron project participants are from several parts of the United States, selected because each woman played a significant role in Stone's life.

"I was fascinated with the image of an apron," says Stone, "not only as it relates to food but as it relates to the psychology of what an apron represents from a woman's point of view. Aprons have been around for ages and they have come to symbolize different things to different people."

Stone discovered that firsthand while discussing the project at a dinner party. "The response was overwhelming," she says. "As soon as I had finished talking, two of the women at the party enthusiastically began sharing their own apron recollections with me."

One such story, from Los Gatos resident and textile artist/designer Anne Lamborn, recalls the Christmas after her mother died. "My father had taken fabric, which my mother had collected from different parts of the world over many years, and made a personal apron for each one of his children and grandchildren. My father died the following year in an auto accident. Needless to say that apron is among my most valuable possessions."

According to Stone, participants in the apron project were encouraged to "feel free to change the shape and/or surface" of the basic apron.

"What I hoped to accomplish," she says, "was an awareness and a sensitivity to each other's stories and to awaken in others the question, 'What would my apron have looked like if I had done one?'"

Reaching back to her own background, Stone says the title of the show ". . . No Fuss At All. . . " represents the many times her mother and her mother's friends would have to prepare food for unexpected company, or prepare a dish for a large gathering. Their response, she says, was usually, "Oh, this, really, it was no fuss at all. . . "

Stone, an award-winning artist whose work has been featured throughout the country, including the American Museum of Quilts and Textiles in San Jose, first conceived of the idea as an opportunity to pull together the women who were involved in her own life history.

Describing her role in the project as somewhat of a cheerleader on the sidelines, Stone continued to send periodic letters of encouragement, confirmation and explanation throughout the project.

". . . No Fuss At All . . . Women's Apron Narratives," will be on exhibit Thursdays through Sundays, from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., April 21 to May 19, at Fellowship Gallery, United Methodist Church, 19 High School Court, in Los Gatos. A reception will be held from 2 to 4 p.m. Sunday, April 21. The exhibit is free and open to the public. For information, call the Fellowship Gallery at 354-4730.