Advanced Fiber Studio (Highlights)
The stains and snags of secondhand bedding, clothing, and other fabrics hold their own stories I activate and amplify. I use materials collected from thrift stores and directly from friends and strangers alike as a surface upon which to reflect. I find poetics in each process I explore and follow them. Bleaching and dyeing the fabric cleanses and transforms the cloth, reviving it as a space to start anew. Regardless, the rips and stains show through and reveal memories of past interaction. Tight, gathered stitches, obscured text, and clusters of loose threads disrupt the surface of the textile, favoring hand-produced, gestural irregularities.
Through repetitive processes like stitch and overdyeing, I seek to create a visual translation of obsessive thoughts, emotional and physical pain, grief, and healing. Sketches and writings created while ruminating on moments of high emotion are translated and embedded into the textile. Some call for careful hand stitching, others hurried machine stitching that distorts the surface. The needle pierces the surface repeatedly, a subtly violent gesture, yet it serves to join and mend. Tension is balanced with calm, destruction with care. Each piece is not a reminder of the pain, but that there is value in healing.