printmaking
Studio Work
Broken Stars
Hand-quilted and screen-printed denim and canvas with seed beads, 27.5” x 40”, 2024In slow-making processes like weaving and etching, time embeds itself into the work. With Broken Stars, I sought to embrace this slowness through the tactile processes of hand-beading and hand-quilting, using screen-printed scraps from my Wall Yeller collection. The checkered composition of a postage stamp quilt resembled the weaving structures I explored in Kate, Goodbye, creating a visual link between the two pieces.
I cut apart denim and canvas scraps—printed with orange and purple dancing stars—and reassembled them, fracturing the star pattern and introducing an element of disorder. Beaded stars dangle like fringe at the quilt’s bottom edge, suggesting a protective charm. But rather than the quilt acting as a ward against chaos, perhaps chaos itself offers protection. By allowing the quilt’s construction to be guided by chance, I surrendered to slow-making and chaos as collaborators to shape my process and create unexpected connections.
Labor-intensive processes hold a quiet power, demanding focused attention, patient reflection, and a deep, tactile engagement with the materials. The slip stitches at the quilt's edge along with the hand-quilted stitches, which follow the seams, nearly disappear into the fabric. Though essential to the quilt’s structure, these hidden acts of stitching underscore the importance of the unseen labor that holds everything together.