Studio Work

Patterns & Spells, installation view, Sarah Shepard Gallery, 2019

I identify as an artist, craftswoman, and democracy activist in equal parts. Employing a range of material approaches in the studio, my practice extends out of American folk-art traditions, pattern and decoration movements, minimalism, and geometric abstraction, with an output that spans drawing, collage, sculpture, text, frequent collaboration, and public projects. The primary visual language of my work is grounded in a lexicon of lyrical and geometric quilt motifs latent with symbolic meaning. By tapping into the tradition of quilts as an artist, I work in tandem with generations of women who came before me, across time, connecting the past and the future, the personal and the political -working with iconographic patterns that have been passed down across communities and adapted throughout the centuries of our nation’s history. To read more link HERE).

Alongside my studio work, in recent years I’ve generated several civically engaged practice projects, forming Art for Democracy in 2017 with an anti-hate campaign for the City of Berkeley that dovetailed into a national public art initiative in 2018. The project is currently carried out as a collaboration with visual artist and graphic designer, Hope Meng. Together we produce a series of public messages each election cycle that encourage voter participation for meaningful issues related to social and environmental justice, rather than a single party or candidate. The project is ongoing and will adapt for the long haul.

Star of a New Name, 2018, (side view) walnut and maple, 48 x 48 x 2 inches

Drawings for Morning, 2021, watercolor and acrylic pen on paper, 16 x 16 inches each.

ABOVE: A Language for the Commons (2021, hand-cut paper, 60 x 70 inches) is a monumental paper collage made over the course of a year during the pandemic. Composed of 143 singular and unrepeated squares of hand-cut paper set in relief, the piece is loosely based on the Jane Sickle Quilt completed in 1863 in Vermont during the Civil War. The collage connects that historical era with our own, incorporating quilt patterns have been shared across communities in the United States for centuries with the addition of symbols that represent equality, democracy, inclusion, queer culture, plant forms and cosmic images of the universe. (In a private collection in California.)

The images below show a selection of works made between 2014 and 2024 — drawings, embroidery pieces, collages assembled with hand-cut and painted papers, and low-relief wood wall sculptures. The works on paper are fitted in handmade wood frames by Smallworks, SF.