It is the juncture at a seam that interests me – two flexible planes meet and are held by thread under tension. I am interested in this juncture because it seems to be two realities united to symbolically create a third thing. It seems a contradiction how a single or double thread can be strong enough to hold two pieces of fabric together–it is an intense fragility that mimics the tenuous balance in nature. My works are representations of a parallel reality I call the “Invisible Healing World.” I study plant forms as inspiration for this created world in hope that the metaphorical rendering of natural systems will help symbolically protect our habitat and environment and strengthen our relationship to it. In my work fabric is permeable yet acts simultaneously as skin and as structure, trapping energy and acting as a metaphorical force field, giving an object form but in a way that allows it to be vulnerable.
By using burlap and other natural materials I am adopting a “cradle-to-cradle” ethic where the materials I use are toxic neither in production or disposal. While making these forms I reflect on what Walt Whitman wrote in Leaves of Grass: “All that a person does or says is of consequence . The indirect is always as great and real as the direct.” I trust that hope has insidious power.
