Losing my father in 2007 drove me towards texture and innovative ways of working sculpturally with pulp, while having a child in 2019 deepened my connection to fabrics from domestic spaces and reawakened me to color. The two experiences were not opposite ends of a spectrum, but rather neighbors in rawness and care. In a society that systemically undervalues caretaking and truncates time for care and grief, I look to the night sky in search of more generous increments of time while working with pulped fabrics to forefront transformative human experiences and invisible layers of care.
I gather, tear, pulp and press color t-shirts and bedsheets – fabrics close to bodies day and night. I hand-form pulped fabrics into wallworks and sculptures marked by vivid hues, glowing shadows, decisive edges, and embedded traces of life. I forefront transformative human experiences and essential support by mixing different color pulped fabrics to reveal fibers, bonds and labor.
My work with torn and pulped textiles reimagines rag papermaking, upending monochromatic, rectilinear, flat paper to bring women’s invisible labor to the surface. I honor cycles of vulnerability and care by connecting intimate and personal moments to vast patterns and systems. The smallest moments, gestures, and fibers accumulate into microcosms that are universes unto themselves.
Waning & Waxing