Artist Statement

Six decades after clothing my dolls with the scraps from my mother’s sewing room floor, I create ‘cloth paintings’ with scraps of fabric, garnered from myriad sources, to tell the stories of my people, my country and my times.

My work is occasionally humorous and warm hearted - it brings back memories of more peaceful, happier times. More often the work is controversial, forceful and sometimes bitter and heart wrenching as I retell the history and culture of this country from the perspective of the ‘other’ - the oppressed, the abused and the disenfranchised.

My ‘cloth paintings’ are large scale, vividly colored, richly textured and celebrate the human form. I use both the appliqué and piecing methods to sew scraps of fabric together. Machine stitches, hand embroidery, beads, sequins, cowrie shells, laces, silk ribbons and, occasionally, acrylic paints are added to embellish the surface. Each piece is drawn repeatedly over a seven to eight step process with implements ranging from a #2 pencil to a steel needle holding six strands of cotton embroidery floss.