Are one’s passions a representation of themselves, or of their ancestors alive within them? This sculpture explores the concepts of genetic inheritance and generational traits. DiMascio, who is of Spanish and Italian descent, learned to crochet from her abuela in Spain. Crochet has since
become an outlet for DiMascio to decompress and express herself. This piece is meant to question whether certain characteristics are purely a result of genetics, or a unique aspect of one’s own personality. Each color in the DNA strand corresponds with the part of the strand that
it represents: cyan for cytosine, amethyst for adenine, teal for thymine, green for guanine, saffron for pentose sugar, pink for the phosphate group, and white for null/nitrogen base. The order of the granny squares in the backbones of the DNA strand are reversed, to represent how one runs in the 5’ to 3’ direction, and the other from 3’ to 5’. Black fabric sleeves were sewn, stuffed, and fed over wire to create the structure of the double helix. Each square was joined
using a flat seam slip stitch in red yarn, and the ends of the granny square sleeves were sewn to the ends of the black tubes using clear thread. DiMascio hopes that each viewer can see their own generational trait in the crochet, and can contemplate the juxtaposition between the theoretical and scientific interpretations of inheritance.