Only the edges of a torn map remain legible. The map is intervened by embroidered roads and paths lined with seed beads that lead to a knotted center, where embroidery thread fills the gaps between loops of crocheted yarn. Pasted atop the map are smaller images of the blurred lights of traffic on highways, as well as jam-packed freeways and what appears to be a small infographic that reads: “Alert today, Alive tomorrow.”

According to Art Saint Louis, “This juried exhibit showcases the talents of ‘Artists Informed by Time’-artists aged 70+-who, by making art, share their thoughts & ideas about the world and themselves with us.” 

I was fortunate enough to speak with Kacey Cowdery about her practice and her thoughts and ideas about the world around us. Cowdery, who recently turned 76, has been sewing since the age of nine and has been utilizing textiles as a medium in her art-making since the 90s. 

Cowdery’s work makes use of largely recycled items she gets at local free tables-tables at local craft and quilt guilds where artists donate supplies that they are no longer using and can take what other artists have left to share. 

“I haven’t bought anything, and I will try very hard to adapt my work to what I do have, as opposed to trying to go out and buy something,” said Cowdery. “The thread that I used to crochet that piece [“Traffic”] was something that somebody gave me.” 

For Cowdery, the center of “Traffic” represents the city, configured as loops of crocheted yarn, speckled with blue and green thread that represents water and parks. The crochet is free form, “so there was no pattern, it just evolved in wherever I felt like inserting that hook into the previous work, then I would go on from there,” said Cowdery. 

Instead of the harsh, rigid lines of skyscrapers and highways, a tangled mass of organic forms emerges from the canvas, which seems to pose an alternative to the ever-expanding city. Yet, for Cowdery, “Traffic” reflects the state of cities in the present, lacking infrastructure and public transportation. 

An inscription from Cowdery next to the work reads, “Inner cities are empty, decayed. To blame are greed for land in the ‘burbs and highways to reach single family homes. Public transportation is miniscule. We are forced to drive, belching toxins in our wake. Revitalize inner cities, learn to love high-rise living and develop public transport.” 

When asked how she saw this phenomenon occurring in St. Louis, Cowdery explained that her husband’s job was only 10 minutes away from their home in Webster Groves, but if he were to take the bus, it would take him over an hour to get there with a transfer in between. 

Cowdery has lived in St. Louis and the surrounding counties for most of her life and hopes future generations of St. Louis make the most of what the city has to offer, particularly through the use of design and architecture that encourages human interaction and community. 

Cowdery envisions a St. Louis filled with “the facilities people need” such as grocery stores and local businesses where, at least, “they know your face, if not your name.” 

“Traffic,” while not depicting people explicitly, encourages the viewer to wonder: who travels on these roads lined with beads and green-thread grass? Who lives in these loops of yarn? While the highways Cowdery depicts might seem at first glance to lead away from the tangled mass, the city sticks out from the collaged canvas, looping us in, and inviting us to reconsider our relationship with our surroundings. 

Each time you look at “Traffic,” another facet of the work becomes apparent, creating a kaleidoscope of different fragments that coalesce and create a confluence of individual parts. Is that not what the city, or rather, St. Louis represents? Never solely one thing, free from the entrapments of a ‘good or bad’ binary, but rather a constantly shifting collection of fragments-a collage-a kaleidoscope of experiences, histories, hardships that change in appearance every time we view them yet remain familiar and dear.