debbie barrett-jones
Holding On, Letting Go
Statement about the work in The Mother and… Project
Weaving is a journey of transformation through process—each thread physically touched, each movement a meditation, guiding the work from beginning to completion. The loom is a sanctuary, a space of rhythm and focus, where memory, creativity, and presence converge. Motherhood, with its mix of grief and joy, has profoundly shaped my practice: the necessity of letting go while still holding love.
In my makeshift craft room, I once shared space with my young daughters, setting boundaries around my loom on a rug they could not enter. In this installation, I expose the mess—both the chaos I have created and the disorder that was always present. By revealing it, memory, creativity, and motherhood are woven together, showing how daily life, play, and making coexist.
Weaving (and mothering), a form of time travel, visiting the past, present, and future into one continuous thread. And then, unweaving—the deliberate undoing of what has been made—teaches surrender, patience, and transformation. Amid the scattered objects of my children’s life and mine, the loom and its woven rug remain a grounding space of rhythm and calm, a meditation on connection, loss, and change.
Here, in the interplay of creation and release, I am continuously holding on and letting go, both as an artist, mother, and…
Artist Statement
As a weaver, I witness the transformation of a white cone of yarn into a colorful piece of fabric. The tactile nature of weaving brings me fully into the present; my fingers connect with every thread as I create, experiencing a dialogue between myself, the materials, and the world around me. Through this process, I reflect on connection, care, and the rhythms of life—experiences that resonate with my role as a mother, as a maker, and as part of a lineage that connects the women who came before me to my daughters, carrying forward resilience, skill, and creativity.
I find comfort in the structure and order of weaving—the careful planning of pattern, color, and the straight vertical and horizontal lines of warp and weft. Disorder enters when I unweave, deliberately pulling threads apart. This act of unraveling is a form of reflection, revisiting memories and processing personal and collective experiences of grief, trauma, and growth. In letting go of threads, I confront the messy, uncontrollable, and painful aspects of life while honoring the enduring resilience of family across generations.
Thread by thread, beat by beat, as I dye, paint, weave, and unweave, I find acceptance, courage, and gratitude. My work seeks to offer viewers a space for reflection, hope, healing, and resilience—an invitation to witness transformation, the cycles of creation and release, and the enduring threads of care that connect us across time and generations.
Artist Bio
Textile artist Debbie Barrett-Jones studied at the Kansas City Art Institute (KCAI) and received her Master of Fine Arts in textiles from the University of Kansas. For more than 20 years, she has created smaller-scale works such as woven scarves, as well as fine art textiles and prints for homes, businesses, hospitals, places of worship, and gallery exhibitions. Her work has been shown throughout the United States, including in Kansas City at Children’s Mercy Hospital, Truman Medical Center, Community Christian Church, Lead Bank in the Crossroads, The Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, the Kansas City International Airport terminal, and galleries nationwide.
In 2016, she launched the Healing with Weaving initiative, providing frame loom kits, workshops, and community-building projects to foster creativity, mindfulness, and healing for patients, families, and staff.