I dye and print textiles for improvisational quilts and wall hangings. I layer experimental print and dye techniques one on top of another to create richly textured, complex surfaces. I sometimes combine printed fabric with family textiles and clothing to make collaged art quilts that reference the body, domesticity, and memory. I often start with an abstract idea or emotional state. I print and dye then cut, piece, and re-cut my materials until I find a combination that elicits the emotional state or idea I am interested in exploring. I do not have a sense of the finished design before I begin, but instead know what techniques I want to use or the constraints I will apply. I am most interested in techniques that borrow from multiple disciplines, dancing on the edge of printmaking/surface design, silkscreen/monotype, quilting/embroidery, artistic voice/chance, etc.
The title for this project comes from an old book I bought while I was pregnant. The book is filled with illustrations of women doing stretches and exercises, with ergonomic suggestions for housework and childcare. I found it a little bit helpful, mostly irrelevant. It didn’t do much to alleviate the chronic pelvic pain that started in my second trimester or the “new mother’s tendonitis” I developed when my son was five months old and almost 20lbs. The biggest impact the book has had was to help articulate the new chapter I find myself in, the “Childbearing Years.” As a culture, we focus on pregnancy as a time of change, but it is only the beginning.
Since becoming a parent, the boundaries of my studio practice and life have become evermore fluid. To continue making work, I have to be flexible. I have to practice dropping one thing in order to quickly transition to something utterly different, and most of all I must surrender to circumstance.