The Time Within

All living organisms, be it plants or animals, share in their genes the same structure that helps them adapt to the time of day. We all have “time” embedded on a molecular level of every cell. We carry our own time within us. The biological clock in our bodies adapts our physiology to the fluctuations of the day, the circadian rhythm.

In 2017, three researchers, Jeffrey C. Hall, Michael Rosbash and Michael W. Young, got awarded the Nobel prize for Medicine for their research on the inner workings of these clocks. Their discoveries explain how plants, animals and humans adapt their biological rhythm so that it is synchronized with the Earth’s revolutions. The clock regulates critical functions such as behavior, hormone levels, sleep, body temperature and metabolism.

I hand painted the background to have a gradation from light to dark blue, to represent the daytime and nighttime. The fabric for the shapes representing different life forms was stencilled with a commercial stencil that has clock faces, numbers, hands etc. I wanted to show that all living things have the same genetic clock in them.

When I had laid out all the shapes and was about to start quilting, life took a turn and the piece got a whole new layer of meaning for me. Our dog Luna got diagnosed with acute kidney failure, at 5 years old. She was deteriorating quickly, and we could see that her time was running out. I realized that the animal shape in the quilt could be her, as this is what she looked like. Her own time was coming to an end, she had no time left in her. I’m glad I have a reminder of her in the piece. We never know when it's time to say goodbye.