Photos & Statement from "Hitting Home" - July/August 2014 @ the Lawrence Arts Center
Thoughts on "Hitting Home"...
Over the last couple of years, births, deaths, shifting relationships, and changing responsibilities have made me keenly aware of passing time. In response, I find myself questioning my priorities, my roles, my relationships, and my motivations. What truly matters to me? What has real and lasting value? What am I working toward? I emerge from my usual blur of daily routines and to-do lists both in alarm and in awe of the precious and fleeting nature of even my most mundane moments. Again and again, I find myself considering and evaluating how I, and those around me, use this most finite resource - time.
As this realization of time has hit home, I explore and express it by combining and manipulating everyday objects, most often textiles and domestic "debris." I employ old clothes, linens, string, hair, dishes; some things I intentionally gather and other things filter in from my own life. These materials call to me because I know them intimately. In fact, almost everyone lives their lives connected to these items some way. I can't help but respond to stains, wrinkles, folds and rips - "defects" that record use and tell stories. I think about garments that are worn for a time and then are discarded or stored away. When I walk through my neighborhood, I am struck by crumbling concrete and peeling paint - so many things wear out and must be replaced. I fold and stack cloth; it is like piles of sediment. I mark the rhythm of household chores, changing bodies, and passing seasons. With my work, I feel compelled to call attention to and examine how we invest the seconds, days and years that make up our lives.
Over the last couple of years, births, deaths, shifting relationships, and changing responsibilities have made me keenly aware of passing time. In response, I find myself questioning my priorities, my roles, my relationships, and my motivations. What truly matters to me? What has real and lasting value? What am I working toward? I emerge from my usual blur of daily routines and to-do lists both in alarm and in awe of the precious and fleeting nature of even my most mundane moments. Again and again, I find myself considering and evaluating how I, and those around me, use this most finite resource - time.
As this realization of time has hit home, I explore and express it by combining and manipulating everyday objects, most often textiles and domestic "debris." I employ old clothes, linens, string, hair, dishes; some things I intentionally gather and other things filter in from my own life. These materials call to me because I know them intimately. In fact, almost everyone lives their lives connected to these items some way. I can't help but respond to stains, wrinkles, folds and rips - "defects" that record use and tell stories. I think about garments that are worn for a time and then are discarded or stored away. When I walk through my neighborhood, I am struck by crumbling concrete and peeling paint - so many things wear out and must be replaced. I fold and stack cloth; it is like piles of sediment. I mark the rhythm of household chores, changing bodies, and passing seasons. With my work, I feel compelled to call attention to and examine how we invest the seconds, days and years that make up our lives.
