My Process
Like my mother’s needlework, my artistic process is unhurried and contemplative. It begins by documenting the textures and forms I see in my natural surroundings, whether through my window or abroad, via photography. This process honors and records the autographic mark that a place makes on a person. The photographs are decayed through digital reduction, much like the memory of a person or place fades as time passes and memory starts to fade. This reduction is intentional and acknowledges that the beauty of the natural world, viewed through technology, is never as magnificent as it is in person.
The visual images are methodically transferred to Clayboard, an acid-free, ultra-smooth kaolin clay ground panel, and then painted using fluid acrylic, medium, and a small brush. From a distance, my work may resemble a photographic image; however, upon closer inspection, one discovers a surface teeming with small stitch-like marks. This detail transforms the viewer’s perception of the original object. The brushwork is reminiscent of needlework, both in its application and in the emotional connection it invokes for me as the daughter of a stitcher.