“Tie one on for peace” (I like to think that peace can have a sense of humor!)
When I started thinking about this piece, I wondered if there were a specific color of ribbon already associated with peace, like red for AIDS awareness, pink for breast cancer, and so on, so I googled “peace ribbon.” And this is what I found: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c5FiK79mvYk. In 1982, Justine Merritt invited some friends to stitch 1-yard segments depicting "what I cannot bear to think of as lost forever in a nuclear war," with the idea to join the segments and wrap the resulting peace ribbon around the Pentagon. Three years and 10 MILES of ribbon later, Merritt and friends wrapped the Pentagon--and much more--with this marvelous ribbon. Please give yourself 45 minutes to watch this beautiful and inspiring film!
And the Peace Ribbon project continues to this day. The Ribbon International, an NGO associated with the United Nations, describes the project: "The Ribbon is an ever growing number of meter-by half-meter (or one yard by half-yard) pictures, sewn or painted on fabric, showing what each individual maker loves most and wants to protect by abolishing nuclear weapons, ending wars and preserving the environment... Nothing in the history of art compares to this enormous effort by people of many nations uniting in world support for the care and protection of the earth." Read more here: https://www.theribboninternational.org/
