“I am a collector and admirer of scraps. The ghosts of the past that reside in worn clothing, the subconscious memories we all have of old upholstery, the tides of taste in surface design that allow a fabric to evoke a decade…these references tie us together through the most universal of man-made and woman-made materials.

My current work deals in the blending of fragments. The eye trained by looking at nature has a wonderful ability to make sense of complexity and order of chaos. Using the order of vertical strips against the chaos of surfaces loaded with texture. I am watching what happens to this dual picket-fence image through the manipulation of color and value. The bold scale fostered in theatre design, fascination with clothing and suggestions of it, gluttony for color and a pure love of cloth dominate my hand and eye.

For each piece, two or more panels are built using techniques including over dyeing, layering transparent fabrics, painting and coloring with airbrushed fabric dye and pigments. Fabrics may be anything from the sublime to the ridiculous including handmade laces, damasks, denim, bits of clothing, ribbon – whatever appeals. The panels are machine embroidered with several kinds of thread then slit into strips and reconstructed in an alternating pattern. The resulting combination of control and surprise provide the excitement that keeps the process going.”