My original residency in Assisi, Italy was postponed due to the Covid 19 pandemic. During the waiting period and while I was essentially cloistered in my art studio for over a year, I worked on a project related to an alb, a liturgical garment that St Clare had made in the 13th century, the original of which is in the Basilica of Santa Chiara in Assisi.  Using heirloom family linens, I created a facsimile of the alb which involved a labor intensive process of researching the history, design and proportions of St Clare's alb,  disassembling my own family linens and learning how to sew and mend.  Requiring focus, patience, devotion and perseverance, it was the hand  sewing itself that gave me joy and a sense of comfort.  As a symbol of ritual purity, the Medieval alb was meant to cover the clothes of a priest in his preparation to perform a liturgical ceremony.  The donning of the alb can represent a transformation and act as a metaphor for the divine. Perhaps heretical, but here, my alb clothes a woman. And while St Clare eschewed the body, here the linen of the alb and the impression of the body beneath it speak of the harmony of body and spirit. https://www.janicegordon.net/single-post/st-clare-the-alb-and-i