Working with images of my mother's sewing machine,
scraps of old worn and torn quilt fragments,
scraps of ideas and histories and stories,
I piece together a new narrative and
honor our unknown future,
threading it with hope.
Woodcut, 48 inches x 24 inches
Woodcut on cotton, thread, pieced cotton and linens, 70 x 35
Monotype, 30 x 22
Monoprint with collage and drawing, 19 x 15
This "print suspends two realities in dynamic tension-a precarious imbalance of our world held by the embrace of a quilt fragment. The piecing of image, color and form further amplifies a strong sense of fragmentation, while the stitching holding the bottom of the form is an acknowledgment of fragility and attempt at wholeness." Elizabeth Jabar, curator of Making An Impression at Cove Street Arts, Portland, ME, June, 2024
Monoprint and collage, 19 x 15
Monoprint and collage
Silk-screen on cotton fabric, multiple pieces, variable installation, approximately 12 x 5 x 5 feet
Detail, silk-screen on cotton
Silkscreen on cotton, 45 x 35
Silk-screen on cotton and vintage linens, 102 x 66
Vintage quilt fragments, vintage kimono fragments, leather, artist dyed quilt fragments, gesso, acrylic paint, each kimono approximately 16 x 14 inches
Back and front of one kimono
Woodcut printed on cotton with additions of vintage quilt fragments, 60 x 40
Woodcut on paper, image: 10 x 8, paper: 19 x 15
Silk-screen print on cotton with hand stitching, 88 x 29
Artist book, mixed media
Monoprint, 22 x 30
Monoprint, 19 x 25
Monoprint, 30 x 22
Monoprint, 30 x 22
Monoprint, 30 x 22
Viscosity monotype, 30 x 22
Viscosity monotype, 22 x 30
Folded monotype with stitching
The terminus of the glacier is
an instructive place.
Ceaselessly changing, and
yet always the same,
like the seashore.
Ice streams becoming rivers,
mountains wearing down into valleys.
The transition zone between two worlds.
Thomas Wharton, Icefields, 1995
Monotype printed from deconstructed vintage quilt batting. Image 11 x 11. Paper 19 x 15.
Monotype. Image size 13.5 x 11. Paper size 19 x 15.
Monotype and acrylic. 22 x 30
Monotype, monoprint, graphite 19 x 15
Monotype, monoprint, graphite 19 x 15
I continue to work with old cloth. I pulled out my grandmother’s vintage table linens that once lay on her table where she hosted dinners for family and friends.
As I folded and arranged her linen napkins and printed from them during the pandemic, I thought of the shared meals with family and friends I was missing so much.
As I printed from cloth and hung the prints, I sensed a veil, a ghost curtain, hanging before me, separating me from others. Did I feel an overwhelming sadness or a gentle touch, a whisper of comfort and hope?
On the other hand, the ink on the napkins feels shattered and sharp, piercing our hearts. But I begin to see sturdy forms, new building blocks.
The supple strength of these 100-year-old linens persists.
Monoprint printed from vintage family linens, image: 13 x 13 inches, paper: 22” x 15”
Monoprints from the series I Miss You So Much; each monoprint, image: 13 x 13 inches, paper: 22” x 15”
Vintage linens, silk, ink 160 in. x 28 in.
Left, installed Right, detail
Detail, Ink on vintage linen
Detail, Ink on vintage linen
Detail, Ink on vintage linen
What secrets are held within this once sturdy but now fragile old quilt?
Whose bodies were warmed and comforted by this quilt?
Whose hands gathered the scraps of cloth and began to piece together a pattern?
And whose hands pushed the threaded needle through the layers?
Whose hands repaired and altered and passed down the quilt to keep it a living document?
And what remains when the quilt seems ready to be discarded?
I began to carefully deconstruct an old and well-worn quilt by tearing at the stitches and opening the quilt. I found another old and well-worn quilt inside.
Another time I opened a quilt made by mother-in-law and used the inside as a carefully stitched canvas on which to add my mark.
Whose lives have been stitched together?
Are we not all from a family of quilters?
Acrylic and gesso on deconstructed quilt fragment, 13 x 13 inches
Acrylic and gesso on deconstructed crazy quilt interior, 46 x 65
Acrylic, graphite and gesso on deconstructed linen quilt backing fragments,
27 x 15 inches (left) and 31 x 15 inches (right)
Cold wax, graphite, and gesso on deconstructed quilt fragment, 16 x 18.5
Deconstructed quilt fragment with gesso and graphite, 12.5 x 12 inches
Work hung on studio wall, Fine Arts Work Center, Provincetown, MA, 2019
Acrylic, gesso, thread on deconstructed quilt fragments, 20 x 10 inches
Deconstructed quilt fragment with acrylic and graphite, 35 x 18.5 inches
Gesso, acrylic, joint compound, and graphite on quilt fragment, 14.5 x 16 inches
Work on the studio wall, Fine Arts Work Center, Provincetown, MA, 2019
Deconstructed quilt fragments with gesso and acrylic, 35 x 18.5 inches (left) and 33 x 18.5 inches (right)
Quilt fragment and ink, 12 x 12 inches
Gesso, acrylic, and graphite on deconstructed quilt fragment, 18.5 x 16 inches
Acrylic, gesso, joint compound on deconstructed quilt fragment, 14 x 13 inches
Deconstructed quilt fragment with gesso, joint compound, acrylic, 23 x 15.5
Deconstructed quilt pieces, ink, gel medium, 12 x 12 inches (left) and 13 x 12 inches (right)
Deconstructed quilt fragment, gesso and acrylic, 15 x 14 inches
Quilt fragments and acrylic, 13.5 x 29 inches overall
Deconstructed quilt fragment, gesso, acrylic, 15 x 15 inches
Work hung on the line at the Fine Arts Work Center, Provincetown, MA, 2019
Folded, clamped, and dyed vintage linen sheet, 72 x 104 inches (variable)
Acrylic on cotton, 96 x 40 inches
Acrylic on cotton, 96 x 40 inches
Quilt fragments, monotypes on paper and thread, 40 x 7.8 inches
Details:
Ocean’s white hem gleams
As the evening star descends
Wrap me in moonlight.
Upon carefully breaking the stitches of an old “feed sack” quilt, I found another older quilt inside, probably made in the mid-late 1800’s. I created prints from a section of the tattered and torn inside quilt - remnants of fabric, thread, and batting.
I had not anticipated the prints would evoke a sense of ravaged fields, water, and sky; a sense of our land in flux.
Another tattered but supple and soft old quilt with the “postage stamp” pattern had such tiny stitching, it was harder to get to the inside. But once I did, I used a section of the inside of the fragile quilt top to share its story. It too seems to tell a story, a story of dividing the land.
This land — their land, your land, my land, our land — that is and has been a source of such strife and sustenance.
Nine monoprints on paper, individually framed and presented in a grid of squares, echoing the pieced squares of a quilt. Each print is 15 x 15.
Monotype, image: 11 x 11 inches, paper: 15 x 15 inches
Monotype, image: 11 x 11 inches, paper: 19 x 15 inches
Monotype, image: 12 x 11 inches, paper: 19 x 15 inches
Monotype, image: 11 x 11 inches, paper: 19 x 15 inches
Monotype, image: 11 x 11 inches, paper: 19 x 15 inches
Monotype, image: 11 x 11 inches, paper: 19 x 15 inches
Monotype, image: 11 x 11 inches, paper: 19 x 15 inches
Monotype, image 11 x 11, paper 19 x 15
Monotype, image: 11 x 11 inches, paper: 19 x 15 inches
Monotype, image: 11 x 11 inches, paper: 19 x 15 inches
Monotype, image: 11 x 11 inches, paper: 15 x 19 inches
Monotype, image: 11 x 11 inches, paper: 15 x 15 inches
Monotype, image: 11 x 11 inches, paper: 19 x 15 inches
Monotype, image: 11 x 11 inches, paper: 15 x 19 inches
Monotype, image: 11 x 11 inches, paper: 15 x 19 inches
Monotype, image: 11 x 11 inches, paper: 19 x 15 inches
Monotype, image: 18 x 11 inches, paper: 22 x 15 inches
Monotype, image: 11 x 11 inches, paper: 19 x 15 inches
Monoytpe with thread, image: 11 x 11 inches, paper: 19 x 15 inches
Monotype, image: 11 x 11 inches, paper 19 x 15 inches
Deconstructed quilt fragments, acrylic, monotypes on paper, thread, 40 x 8 inches
Along our coastline we watch the fury of a rising tide.
What song lyrics roll around in my head as I paint?
Paved paradise, took out a parking lot. The ocean tossed 190 of the 200 parking spaces at Provincetown’s Herring Cove into the waves and sand.
There’s a great black wave in the middle of the sea…
Tell me lies, tell me lies, tell me sweet little lies.
Scituate is rebuilding parts of our seawall higher and wider as I imagine the ocean has a chuckle.
Mixed media on paper, 30 x 22
Herring Cove parking lot, Provincetown, May, 2018
Oil on paper, 30 x 22
The ocean says no… to paving paradise…
Oil on paper, 30 x 22
Beach plum and beach rose, Provincelands, May, 2018
Herring Cove, Provincetown
Oil on paper, 30 x 22
Oil on paper, 22 x 15
Caution, Provincetown
Oil on canvas, 20 x 16
Oil on canvas, 20 x 16
Mixed media over monotype on paper, 22 x 30
Beach plum branches at Herring Cove, Provincetown
Mixed media on paper, 30 x 22
At the seawall
I watch the ocean break up and scatter our ideals of bigness and lastingness.
I watch the barriers we build erode and be built again.
I see undercurrents of danger and futility; persistence and hope.
Monotypes, monoprints and etchings collaged and hung on Asian paper scrolls, 84 x 60
9 details, each print approximately 6 x 6 mounted on 11 x 11 paper
Oil on board, 24 x 18
Soap ground and hard ground etching and chine colle, 7 x 7
Artist book, aluminum covers, monoprints, 7 x 5 closed, 7 x 40 open
Etching and aquatint, edition of 5, 27.5 x 19.5
Etching and aquatint, edition of 5, 27.5 x 19.5
Etching, aquatint, dry point and spit bite, edition of 8, 19.5 x 27.5
Etching, aquatint and spit bite on shaped plate, edition of 8, 19.5 x 27.5
Etching, aquatint and drawing, 19.5 x 27.5
Etching and chine colle, 20 x 16
Fragments of Place
42 ° 14 ′ North | 70 ° 46 ′ West
An exploration of the fragmentary elements I find so very close to home.
Layers of beauty, layers of litter; delicate veins, powerful scars; some made by man, some made by nature.
The fragments begin to reflect the whole.
Series of 25 monotypes, each 11 x 15
Etching and chine colle; 15 x 11
Oil and graphite on paper; 44 x 30
Oil on canvas, 24 x 30
Oil on canvas, 20 x 24
Oil on canvas, 18 x 14
Oil on canvas, 20 x 24
Oil and encaustic on cradled panel, 8 x 8 x 2
Artist book, Japanese stab binding, etchings and monotypes; 6 x 12
Graphite on paper, 15 x 44
Oil on paper, 22 x 15
Oil on canvas, 12 x 9
Oil on canvas, 12 x 9
Oil on canvas, 9 x 12
Oil on canvas, 12 x 9
Oil on panel, 12 x 12
Oil and encaustic on paper on cradled panel, 12 x 12
etching, chine colle, sumi ink
etching, chine colle, sumi ink
etching, chine colle, sumi ink
etching, chine colle
VKP Combine Series: A River of Creativity
During a Returning Residency at the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown:
The beach plums were gloriously in bloom,
Fishing vessels were heading out to sea, and
I altered a group of etchings I had done a few years earlier in Valdottavo, Italy, collaging on bits of prints I had done in Krakow, Poland or bits of my father’s Physics Handbook.
Each print is approximately 9 x 6 on a sheet of paper 20 x 14.
Childhood memories of sewing with my mother unravel and stretch across time and space as this tapestry of work evolves. Monotypes of entangled thread are stitched together, torn and collaged. Bits of clothing and color are knotted with compassion. This work continues to consider those who sew and how we make connections.
Monotypes, thread, xerox, paper; 30 x 22
Monotypes on both sides of translucent Japanese papers, sewn with thread; 50 x 60
Mixed media and monoprints on canvas; 16 x 20
Oil, graphite, monotype, and collage; 30 x 22
Collage on paper, 20 x 15
Mixed media on canvas, 20 x 16
Oil, graphite, collaged monotypes on canvas, 20 x 16
Oil on paper, 14 x 10
Oil and graphite on paper, 15 x 10
Oil, cold wax, and paper on paper, 8.5 x 10
Oil on paper, 12 x 8.5
Oil on paper, 12.5 x 12
Oil, graphite, cold wax and paper on paper, 7 x 10.5
Monotype on paper, 22 x 22
Monotypes, 22 x 22
As a child my mother taught me to sew.
When I began making drawings and etchings of the sewing machine and its fantastic attachments, I began sensing the jumble of shapes was a stand-in for the jumble of a collapsed garment factory in Bangladesh.
Memories of sewing with my mother unraveled and stretched across time and space. Threads of memory connect me to 1,130 seamstresses killed in Bangladesh when their garment factory collapsed on them in April 2013.
This work evokes the dignity, fragility, and impermanence of life and asks me to consider the legacy we leave.
1,130 strokes of paint on translucent paper; 65 foot scroll, 18 inches wide
Mixed media painting on paper on panel, 22 x 30 x 2
Etching and chine colle, 27.5 x 19.5 (left) -- Sewing machine tools and velvet shirt, 12.5 x 12.5 x 3
Monoprints on paper, 22 x 30
Oil on paper on cradled panel, 30 x 22 x 2
Monotypes on newsprint, taped together, 15 feet x 2 feet
Hand sewn vintage infant dress with ink, wooden sculpture, hand painted ceramic doll hand; 28 x 14 x 6
Oil on canvas, 20 x 10
Oil on canvas, 36 x 12 x 2
Oil on canvas, 36 x 12 x 2
Monoprints, 44 x 75
Oil and cold wax on paper; 22 x 30
1,130 spools of vintage thread, 6 feet x 5 feet
Stitched clothing fragments, hand-dyed fabric, thread; 120 x 30
Triptych, oil and cold wax on paper; 66 x 30
Oil on canvas with hand dyed silk organza and thread, 20 x 16
Monotype and pencil, 6 x 6
Hand painted ceramic doll legs, installation variable
Ceramic doll hand, thread, pins, fabric and homasote; installation variable
Hand painted ceramic doll arm, hand dyed silk, homasote
The inherent messiness and imperfection of human connection is imbedded in my process of layering, scrubbing away, revealing glimpses of what lies beneath; making marks, making corrections, making connections, making amends.
Leaving a trace.
Oil, acrylic, and graphite on paper on panel; 22 x 30
Mixed media painting on paper, 44 x 30
Mixed media painting on paper, 30 x 22
Mixed media painting on paper, 40 x 28
Mixed media painting on paper, 44 x 30
Mixed media painting on paper on cradled panels (diptych), 44 x 30
Mixed media drawing on paper on cradled panel, 30 x 22
Trace drawing on paper, thread, duct tape, 40 x 20
Two Monoprints, 8 x 8 each
Mixed media on paper; 20 x 16
Mixed media painting on panel, 24 x 18
Conceal | Reveal | Begin Again: During a Returning Residency at the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, I painted over a number of old paintings and prints.
Oil, graphite, cold wax and paper on paper; 30 x 22
Oil, graphite, water color, pastel on paper; 30 x 22
Oil, graphite, paper, pastel on paper; 30 x 22
Oil, cold wax, and Asian paper on canvas; 24 x 20
Mixed media painting on paper; 30 x 22
Oil on cradled panel; 24 x 18
Oil on cradled panel; 24 x 18
