"Out of the ash
I rise with my red hair
And I eat men like air."
--Sylvia Plath, "Lady Lazarus," 1962
Such strong words inspired this biographical quilt. Just as a poet carefully chooses her phrases, so Ross Palmer Beecher chose the proper imagery to convey the conflicted nature of her life. She calls it a memorial and shrine to Sylvia Plath.
Sylvia Plath, ca. 1950-1963
Donated by Corbis-Bettman. ©CORBIS/Bettmann, U1889231Graveyards are a favorite place for Ross Palmer Beecher, and she thought Sylvia Plath would like the tombstones. The tombstones placed on the quilt are based on rubbings and printed on old t-shirts. Beecher says that her favorite place for tombstones is a "classic New England graveyard that had become ratty and full of blackberries. It was beautiful there, I'd go and spend hours with its sense of history, peace and solitude. I was enamored of tombstones and like most folks, I'd rub them. Nobody cared at this one."
Detail of tombstone, 98.86
Photo: Paul Macapia
"The queen bee marries the winter of your year" is the last line of a poem by Sylvia Plath entitled "The Beekeeper's Daughter." Plath wrote a lot about bees. Her father was a bee keeper, and she followed his fascination about their colonies, the queen, their "curtain of wax," musk scents, search for pollen, hives and "spiky armory." Ross Palmer Beecher says she's always liked bugs and insects, but particularly bees, because who wouldn't admire "something little that can put a chemical in you and cause an anaphylactic shock"? She saw bees flying in and out of hives, busily organizing the colony, as another affiliation with Sylvia Plath. "She was obsessive in her work, a dynamo, with two children, a husband, she baked pies, she had everything that was supposed to [make her] happy."
Detail of bee, 98.86
Photo: Paul Macapia