Much of my work is created to celebrate what has been traditionally labelled as “women’s handwork” such as embroidery and quilting. It is also created to challenge the paternalistic and often arbitrary distinction of what is “art” and what is “craft.” These new paintings foreground that division. All are mixed media, acrylic on canvas with actual embroidery and pieces of antique quilts that I have collected over the years. Below is “Coming Apart at the Seams” (24 x 24).
“Crafts + Arts” (24 x 24” mixed media, acrylic on canvas) incorporates an antique quilt piece as a frame for the mini-quilt as well as embroidery stitching and thread.
“Collaboration” (24 x 24” mixed media, acrylic on canvas) also incorporates embroidering stitching.
This 24 x 24” mixed media work, “Quilt,” brings it all together. The painting is acrylic on canvas with antique quilt pieces designed in a traditional American quilt pattern with embroidery stitching and old buttons from my mother’s button box.
The southwest is a mystical place, suffused with pure light, vivid color, and deep mystery. The iconography has become familiar (in some instances, hyper commodified and detached from spiritual meanings like Kokopelli), but for most visitors there, the images, symbols, and structures are still a wonderment. My first visit to Taos, New Mexico, was 1974, and I made a silent wish to live there someday. I am a couple of hours away now in southern Colorado, but Taos continues to inspire me and color my dreams.
Dios de Los Muertos
(24 x 24” acrylic on canvas)
Mi Madre
(36 x 36” acrylic on canvas)
Corazon de Taos I
(36 x 36” acrylic on canvas)
Corazon de Taos II
(36 x 36” acrylic on canvas)
“I paint flowers so they will not die,” Frieda Kahlo.
(24 x 24” acrylic on canvas)
Wildflowers
(24 x 24” acrylic on canvas)
Homage (24 x 24” acrylic on canvas)
I saw “Girl Before a Mirror” at the Tate Modern’s 2018 exhibit, Picasso 1932. I became a little obsessed with the background of the painting and finally recreated the patterns in this painting that I titled, “Picasso’s Wallpaper” (24 x 24” acrylic on canvas). As crazy as it sounds, the angles and patterns of Picasso’s cubist masterpiece are much like those of crazy quilts, which, of course, is another obession of mine. SOLD!
“Home Heart Home”
20 x 20” acrylic on canvas
“Objects d’Art”
20 x 20” acrylic on canvas
“Jo’s Tree”
24 x 24” acrylic on canvas