Body Language

I consider myself a storyteller.  I use fabric collage to tell my stories.

As I am a former photographer, my work begins with photographs I take of strangers, unaware of the camera, caught in those unremarkable and familiar moments that pass without notice or reflection.  Backgrounds and environments are less important than the expressive body language that tells us so much about these people I have never met.  Viewers are invited to bring their own life experiences to the story in each artwork.

I use only commercially available cotton fabric, building the complexity of the image with a layering of unexpected patterns.  I pay as much attention to the “value” of the fabrics (that is their relative lightness or darkness to each other) as their color.  The pieces are constructed in raw edge machine applique, freeing me from tedious piecing and allowing the fraying and puckering that is the inherent characteristic of fabric.