Artist Statement

Salvaged and heirloom textiles have long been the material foundation of my work. I am drawn to their associations with domestic life and labor, intimations of bed and body, and capacity to cover and protect. While common cloth, by itself, is somewhat fragile, the acts of binding, knotting, braiding, weaving, and stitching have been used to build, strengthen and transform cloth into new structures for millennia. In my sculptures I combine some of those simple, old processes with equally utilitarian ideas of regenerating discarded clothing, with the aim of producing works that at once retain and transcend those traditions. The paintings are close examinations of pattern, as observed in the sculptures, and in historic objects.