There is a photograph in my photo album of the standing stones at Pentre Ifan, Wales. Its observation does not recall details about the theoretical time, method or reason for the ancient monument's construction. Instead, like so many photos and mementos, it inspires memories of every other event that occurred on that specific day. On the day of Pentre Ifan's visit, I participated in the Welsh national sport of hitch-hiking. After an hour in the rain watching three-quarters scale cars zip by, unresponsive to my thumb, I accepted a ride from a disturbingly decorated man. His hands were tattooed with matching swallows, amongst prison gang markings and other undecipherable insignia. Further on in the day, farther on in Wales, I wandered into a community gallery featuring a photography exhibition. There hung a picture of two fisted hands tattooed with swallows identical to those I had met in the flesh earlier. When asked the significance of the swallow tattoos, the volunteer docent looked up from her crossword puzzle and exclaimed "Tattoo! That's just the word I needed!" and proceeded to fill in the appropriate boxes.

I am continuously obsessed with the intersections between personal stories and broader histories. I am fascinated by physical artifacts and the narratives they may suggest. I have a constant curiousity about those objects that are preserved and cherished, versus those that are abandoned and lost. In recent work, I attempt to visually reconcile the seeming disconnect between material objects with their own histories--souvenirs, family heirlooms, crumbling houses, and ancient monuments--and my own stories they conjure, whether real or imagined. I employ imagery and materials that reference the past--architectural elements, knick-knacks, found embroideries and cotton remnants scavenged from my grandmother's church quilting group--to reinforce the theme of tangible history.

MIXED MEDIA QUILTS

The wall quilts I make straddle the lines between abstract and representational, realism and surrealism, fibers and painting. I strive to create work that invites, envelopes and entices the viewer through both its visual complexity and human scale. I tend to make relatively large painted quilts--four to eight feet in either dimension--with multiple textile processes. I add and subtract subsequent layers of dye. I paint, screenprint, stamp, discharge and immerse the fabrics in dye to achieve visual richness and depth. I laboriously piece, embroider and quilt the parts until complete. The resultant work has numerous transparent layers of imagery that emerge from the surface. The multiple layers speak to the layers of meaning imbedded in the objects depicted.

ALTERED EMBROIDERIES

The found embroideries I alter are an intimate contrast to the large wall quilts. I resuscitate and revitalize these cast off handcrafts, stitching new life into the abandoned projects of anonymous past generations. With reverential irreverence, I expand upon the original works, creating scenarios never originally intended. Like these wall quilts, these pieces evoke stories of the past while being informed by my own experience.

FRENCH KNOT EMBROIDERIES

In a further off-shoot from my primary quilted work, I have created a series of works composed entirely of hand-stitched French knots. These pieces are a humorous poke at my own obsessive compulsions for hand-work.

MANTRA SERIES

In the final side-project, I further analyze my own ridiculous process and ponder the necessity of the artist's individual hand in the creation of the work. In the Mantra series, I have asked dozens of people to embroider the statement "I will know I have made it when others make my work for me".