Booth 509E
(See map below)
About the Artist
Drawers and boxes in my studio overflow with scraps collected for the past twenty years – treasured family photos, heirloomembroidery, pieces of chair upholstery, vintage drawer liners, richly colored and textured textiles, stacks of drawings – bits and piecesof stories and nostalgia, a collection of a past lifetime. This body of work combines found and discarded materials with traditional artmedia. Thrift store quilt squares, chair upholstery, fabric flowers, balsa wood, and bits of cut paper are layered with paint, marker andoil pastel to create new narratives from past stories. These pieces have evolved into a complex narrative – one both deeply personaland widely shared – stories of loss, renewal, remembrance, expectancy, surprise, and change.
My creative process starts with a combination of materials that create the illusion of space, generally a room or an imaginedlandscape. I use fabric or vintage wallpaper to cover a wall, textural elements for a pieced rug, or a wash of color for the creation of depth in a landscape. My process is intuitive and although I generally begin with somewhat of a blueprint, an idea of the compositionof a piece, many of the other elements come together organically. No. 559 incorporates various found textiles and materials withacrylic paint. Cut pieces of leather, flowers from an old shirt, cardinals cut from vintage quilt squares, and various other textiles andpaper are combined here into an imagined landscape. The elements within the landscape, color and collaged elements, are shifted,layered and arranged until the composition feels finished. The collaged pieces are adhered and sealed with gel medium.
Based in Harrisonburg, VA.
