Felting the Future

This fiber art contribution to the Felting the Future project was created by SRT of Lexington in Fayette County, who also shared the following reflection:

What is your hope for the future?

My hope for the future is…

• To be happy and healthy 
• Spend time with my parents and grandparents 
• To go from a girlfriend to a wife 
• A little farmhouse with a porch swing and a dog and lots of raised garden beds 
• To have a work/life balance that allows me to spend time with those that mean the most to me 
• To know it’s okay to not have it all figured out but to slowly figure it out 
• Children? But definitely travel.

Describe a time when you had to work hard to find hope and resilience.

I graduated college during the beginning of COVID (May 2020) and missed out on a senior thesis show and in person graduation. I held onto this anger and frustration for a long time because I had spent 4 years working towards this end-goal. I have not made anything substantial since I graduated because there were so many big emotions tied up into making. 

This is the first time (the last several months) that I have been more receptive to getting back into making.

What advice would you offer to a younger version of yourself?

• don’t settle for a partner just because you want to be in a relationship or because you’re lonely → you are worth more than that and deserve the moon and the stars. 
• you don’t have to have it all figured out, truly. 
• you don’t have to parent everyone, there are times people need to make their own mistakes and learn from them.

Felting the Future is a participatory art project that is bringing together 500 Kentuckians to imagine and shape a hopeful vision of what lies ahead. Using the ancient technique of felting, participants of all ages and backgrounds are creating handmade pieces that will be joined into one large, colorful installation, which will tour the Commonwealth beginning in 2027. This project is coordinated by artist Kris Grenier (@krisgrenierart) and supported by the Kentucky Foundation for Women (@kyfound4women).