Artist Statement

 

 

 The seduction of stitching, binding, embellishing and layering began for me in early childhood. Like music the rhythm of stitching became entwined with memory and dreaming, part of my soul and a mediative practice. The stitch became notation, a mark, visible or concealed, strong or weak, but like handwriting, revealing the hand and temperament of the maker.

 

The names of the stitches, tacking, chain, cross…evoke not just the form the thread takes on cloth, but describes as well the stabbing the needle makes into the subconscious of the maker. I am fascinated with the simplest of marks. The patterns and lines racing across the surface evoke thoughts of pleasure and pain. Beneath it all, the cloth, the layers everything is knotted and held firmly in place, unable to move in any direction, echoing the knot and the running stitch in the lives of women. These are paintings about that place a place where I feel connected in time.