I create art to help me take control over the stories I was told and continue to tell myself. My current work distills these memories and stories by visually abstracting the complexity of personal and family narratives. Through writing, researching my family archive, and creating a series of intuitive sketches, I develop loose compositions that hold specific details from the memories. My finished work condenses and transforms these sketches into abstract quilt-inspired tapestry and soft sculpture. 

Making these tapestries not only allows me to assert my own story into the family narrative, but also, surprisingly, serves as a catalyst for incorporating more empathy in my understanding of past situations and present-day interactions. The nature of the repetitive quilt-inspired patchwork sewing process is a physical yet meditative act that gives time and space for reflection on the layers of research, emotions and remembrance within each work. I instigate an internal shift from vulnerability to strength as I change something that could be considered fully formed (a yard of cloth) and alter it through multiple processes (cyanotype, dyeing, cutting, sewing, cutting and sewing again). 

Over the last decade, I have predominantly used natural dyes, fabrics, and other materials shifting away from years of using synthetic sources. Making these changes have created a path to researching indigenous natural dyestuffs, as well as remembering and discovering family connections to plants. Transforming textiles using place-based indigenous knowledge systems and family adds further layers of meaning to the work. The color choices can represent specific details or feelings from my memories. They can also be an important connection to a person or place. For instance, I use marigold dye extensively because it creates my mother’s favorite shade of yellow and also was one of the first flowers to bloom in springtime when I was growing up. Including natural dyes from my current home (Hawai’i) and former/ancestral homes (East Coast/Western Europe) is an investigation into how these processes can support a feeling of belonging and self-understanding that I seek through art-making.