My work explores the passage of time and lingering memory of the present. I am drawn to cloths’ ability to hide, reveal, obscure, and protect and I find beauty in ephemeral “found” cloth. Photographs of protected cloth-draped buildings under construction become metaphors for existence and memory, alluding to bones and skin. Images of once cherished linens hint to history and memory of those passed, becoming small landscapes as they stack like strata. And the accidental marks and folds on a painter’s drop cloth, laid to protect the ground, fall leaves scattered on the surface, create intimate and abstract still lifes. All of these images take on new meaning and significance as I navigate the surfaces.
Merging domestic textile practices and contemporary technology, the found cloth images are printed onto prepared silk with a wide format printer and archival inks and detailed sections are collaged and stitched onto the cloth, referencing earlier domestic practices of mending and repair. I carefully investigate the colors and patterns in the images and utilize embroidery stitches to slowly activate the surface, creating shadows and textures, alluding to the marking of time.