When Marie Watt was creating Braid (2004), a spectacular wall hanging distinguished by a lopsided infinity sign made from geometric patches of cloth sewn onto brown blankets, she turned to friends and family for help. “I realized I could spend two years personally hand-stitching, or I could be creative about finishing in a timely manner,” she says. “That’s how the sewing circles evolved.” Over the past several years, Watt, whose lineage is part Seneca and part German-Scottish homesteader, has been making work that plays on the history and physical nature of blankets, an important cultural signpost in the relations between Indians and non-Indians and simultaneously a symbol of intimacy. Hung on the wall as abstract emblems, piled high into sculptures, or transformed into bronze and wood totem pole-like configurations, her blanket works evoke numerous and layered associations. “Community is a big part of my work. It is a family value, and I think it is fair to say it’s a tribal value,” says Watt. “I also like how it relates artistically to the teaching of Joseph Beuys, his notion of social sculpture.”