ESPECIALLY IN CRAFTING, ART IS ABOUT COMMUNITY…

4A Arts recently chatted with Mathew Boudreaux, an advocate for the crafting community and known in the online crafting world as the “Themperor of Crafting”, @mx.domestic (on both Instagram and TikTok). Mathew (who identifies as non-binary) wanted to learn sewing and crafting as a young child but, given social habits and gender norms, wasn’t taught the skills.

After Mathew became a parent, their husband gifted them sewing lessons. What started out as the indulgence of a childhood fantasy turned into an online passion and brand.

In our conversation, Mathew addresses their favorite projects, the sense of community developed in the art world, social justice melding with arts, their idea that 95% is good enough (the last 5% will steal your joy), and finally, “without creativity, without culture, without the humanities, without art, what is life?”

During the podcast, Mathew references an inspirational, modern quilter, Bisa Butler. According to her website, “Bisa Butler is an award winning African American textile artist. She is known for her vibrantly stunning larger than life sized quilted portraits that captivate viewers around the world.”

Eventually we chat about their recent works and Mathew highlights their “progress pride lone star blanket” and their latest work with the “middle finger” blanket they used to work through trauma and anger…which was embraced by the crafting community. They admit “it’s just a larksfoot stitch” but a community has grown up around the idea of it being a therapeutic “middle finger” stitch.