My grandmother Sarah was a quilt maker and craftswoman. When her daughters started having children, she started making baby quilts for them, and eventually all new children born into the family and neighborhood. Each different, and progressively expressive of her own individual style, they somehow also reflect the unknowable quality of each individual's new life. Networks and generations of close and distant cousins, siblings, aunts, uncles, parents, grandparents, and friends are connected by these first gifts.
These days, Sarah’s spirit and my art are influencing each other in different ways through my hardedge abstract geometric paintings, tiles, collage, and most recently, textiles. In April 2021, anticipating the first new baby in our family since her death, I learned to quilt. I fell in love with the physicality of textiles, and the opportunity to apply my art making processes in a new medium.
In all mediums, I create with sustainability and play in mind: in my paintings, tape peels are removed from the canvas and become the marks of my paintings on paper, tape peel paintings become collaged cards, quilt ‘scraps’ become quilted jackets and quilted postcards – new artworks in their own right. Nothing is wasted. My process is cyclical and meditative: a subtractive process, or what would otherwise be left behind, accumulates and becomes additive.
The geometric and improvisational qualities of my visual art are translated into my wearable art pieces. Layered, patterned, angular, and free; my quilted art jackets bring my painting and quilts to the human form. Working with the physicality of textiles and the ability to wrap myself in art has sustained my spirit. I feel connected to my grandmother through our shared responsibility to create for others. I feel grateful to be able to share my quilted life.
When not paintings, I work as an ASL/English Interpreter, make all-natural deodorant, knit, and attempt to stand on my hands. My art hangs in private collections in New York, Boston, St. Louis, and Texas: in situ.