Alabama Invitational 2023 – Exhibiting Artist
Embroidery has a dichotomous relationship with history and contemporary craft. As both craft
and
fine art, it defies classification. My use of textile art is an expression of innovation, feminism,
beauty,
and ecology.
Beyond the inter coastal waterway of Florida, lies the Gulf of Mexico, an ecological wonder,
teeming with snails, mollusks, fish, turtles, and a myriad of marine life. The ecological
multiformity of these sea and sand dwellers is interwoven into the wellbeing of the location – if
the smallest and most delicate of creatures are thriving, then the area and the waterways are
healthy. If not, these smaller species are one of the first indicators of disruption to the area. The
interwoven flora and fauna of this area is the starting point, the intersection between the work
and the ideal, revealing spaces of contemplation of the enormity and magnification of our
contemporary world. This work originates from my citizen-scientist collection of objects gleaned
from beachcombing on the Gulf Coast. In my studio, I 3D scanned crab claws, animal bones,
shells and other found
objects, then used software to translate the resulting 3D meshes for 2D embroidery. I enlarged
the imagery from micro to macro proportions to illuminate the miniature. I think of each
composition as an object in a wonder cabinet: a curated view of nature. Through the lens of early
modern wonder cabinets, I am interested in merging the gendered roles of feminine needlework
and masculine expectations of scientific collection and classification.
