I recently completed a tapestry that I worked on during a Weave Along class with Kathe Todd-Hooker. The tapestry is the first of my new series about the environment. It is inspired by a tragedy for which I have a personal connection.
In 2008 the Kingston Fossil Fuel Plant in Kingston, TN had an accident that spilled over 1 billion gallons of fly ash, the nasty by product of coal burning, into the Clinch and Emory rivers. I owned a lot on the Emory river upstream of the plant. The spill was bad for homes on the water and killed wildlife in the area. We were told not to swim or boat in the rivers until after the clean up. The crews started the cleanup but had to halt within a year.
The company doing the cleanup tried to move the fly ash to Alabama, but Alabama tested it and found two times the allowable radiation levels. They investigated and found barrels of Cesium 137 (Cs) in the river. They had been deposited as output from the Oak Ridge Nuclear Plant nearby. Because of the Cesium, 40 crew members died and over 250 others were made very ill.
In my tapestry the red columns are the smoke towers of the Kingston Plant skyline. The green things are the dead fish and wildlife from the rivers. And the grey tones represent the fly ash.
“KINGSTON CREW TRIBUTE”, handwoven tapestry in wool on cotton