original paintings 2012 - 2025

I am the daughter and granddaughter of quilters, so my world has always been filled with scraps and stitches, colors and patterns. My paintings are inspired by quilts and the women who create them.

Cultural traditions like quilt-making have been preserved and nourished almost exclusively by women artists, and while such works have long been recognized as important historical artifacts (see my comments accompanying the piece, “the way”), they have also been largely ignored as serious works of art.  However, beginning in the 1960s, the quilts of Gee’s Bend began to gain international attention, and what the New York Times recently described as “some of the most miraculous works of modern art America has produced” are now in the permanent collections of over twenty art museums. 

As an art major in college, I couldn’t help but gaze with wonder at the works of Matisse, Klee, Mondrian, and even Rothko as quilt-like with the distinct lines, bright colors, and patterns that I grew up with. I am sure that my teachers then and many critics now would find such a comparison uninformed and impertinent, but what has always been designated (and diminished) as “craft work” and/or “women’s work” is now gaining respect and acknowledgment.   As the art critic of the Times duly notes, aesthetics are contextual, and works of art—whatever the medium and whomever the maker—constantly challenge and readjust our tastes, judgments, and values. We just have to be ready to accept it.