The exhibition Collection/Conservation delves into the intersection of memory, sustainability, and expression through textiles. By incorporating fabric prints, weavings, fiber assemblages, and soft sculptures, I create a rich tapestry of visual and tactile experiences. Central to my practice is transforming inherited garments and self-fashioned fabrics, blending traditional techniques with digital manipulation to merge past and present. Collection/Conservation utilizes imagery sourced from my relatives, who suffered from Alzheimer's, and used photography to collect their thoughts and memories. Upon their passing, I inherited their photos and cameras. Take Jenny’s Fridge. This work consists of remains from reconstructed bedding paired with digitally manipulated collaged imagery, at once remembrance and refuse. In another work, Scarf Scraps, I dissect and transform hand-me-down clothing, discarded fabrics, and fibers—an accumulated mass of thread, yarn, and roving from swept studio spaces—spun together and assembled into structures with dye baths, knitting, and stitching tactics.
My artwork celebrates transformations. Manipulating old garments into new forms blurs the lines of reconstruction, resurrection, and resilience. My grandmother made her family's clothing, bedding, and upholstery. Working directly with the craft supplies inherited from her underscores the personal narrative woven into the things I make. I lean into my grandmother's legacy while considering ways to minimize my carbon footprint. This foundation developed my commitment to sustainability and textiles, greatly influencing the decision-making that touches my community emotionally and intellectually and significantly impacts the natural world.
Knock Off, 2024
Jacquard Weaving, trapunto quilting, rhinestones.
Kelly’s Sunday Gloves, 2024
Spray paint on the gloves my grandmother wore to church every Sunday morning as an exploration of how objects hold memory through stains.
Snakeskin Slip Dress, Stuffed, 2024
Silkscreen prints of a slip dress, quilted on polyester and spandex.
Pop’s Raincoat, 2023
Dye sublimation and silk screen printing on my grandfather’s raincoat and shirt.
Jenny’s Fridge, 2023
Dye sublimation printing on polyester blended jersey knit, serged on memory foam with digitally manipulated imagery sourced from inheriting my Aunt’s camera.