Works in Textiles
The Shroud
This is the kind of delicate shroud I felt should have been made for my mother when she died. Instead, my sister, daughter, and I watched and I cringed as the funeral directors efficiently wrapped her in a plain, rough-looking piece of canvas and bundled her away. It was unsettling to say the least. In the months to follow, I made something more personal with bits of fabric belonging to both of us, some fabric with flowers pressed into it, family names, and other memories.
Satin, cotton, hand and machine stitched [6' x 6']
Bowls of Memory
My maternal grandfather, Thomas Robinson Aiken, left Ireland the year before the Titanic sailed and eventually made his way to Los Angeles to work as a motorman on the red cars. Images and scraps of the past are hand or machine sewn, glued, or printed on cloth.
String, cotton, glue, hand and machine stitched [5' x 5']
Selvages
String, cotton, glue, hand and machine stitched [6' x 6' x .5"]Seamstresses know that the selvage is the finely woven edge of a piece of fabric that keeps the cloth from unraveling; the strings outline my house and reference a star chart's depiction of Libra, my sign.
Inner Workings
Gears, patches, and cords hold everything together.
As poet Marge Piercy writes:
"Weave real connections,
create real nodes,
build real houses.
Live a life you can endure."
Cotton, tulle, yarn, hand and machine stitched [5' x 4']
