Power in Making

Oil on canvas, 24"x36"

2024-2025

I had been thinking about how power is generated and for what purposes: power as oppression/solitary gain versus power that is co-created and reciprocally benefited from. Power as profit versus power as intimacy. Throughout making this piece I joyously reflected on how I can engage in powerful intimacy through being a more conscious consumer, neighbor, community member, friend, and caregiver to my students and kitties.

Imagery comes from my runs in industrial areas and a lovely crafting afternoon with my friends Dean and Sam.

Journal Quilt

Tests and scraps from the year’s sewing projects so far, threadbare covid shorts, and frayed key ring, 20"x30", 2024

Made this while traveling back home to Illinois. Mostly by hand, some on the sewing machine my mom inherited from her friend. Gave mom and dad a little sewing lesson. 

My friend had the charming idea of a gallery in her new apartment before unpacking. A perfect spot to share this piece. 

Parents' Quilt

cotton fabric and thread, 88"x 106"

2024

One side combines patterned fabrics my parents chose.

The other is quilted with arial views of all the places my parents have lived, color coded as mom-yellow, dad-green, and places they’ve lived together-orange. They are sized proportional to the length of time they lived at each place. 

Thirst to Water

 

Oil on canvas, 36"x48"

2023-2024

This is a cobbling of things that have brought me joy or shown significance over the past year. I have been focusing on healthier and more sustainable ways to navigate anxiety and depression, rather than using coping substances.

I am learning that recovery is not linear, precarious even, but I am putting intent towards it.

The title is lent from A Little Closer to the Edge by Ocean Vuong, “O mother, O minute hand, teach me how to hold a man the way thirst holds water.” A man, in this case, being my own being.

Tether

up-cycled sweater and yarn, 2022-2024

knit and crocheted tube spanning from Sinéad's apartment to mine.

In 2020 Sinéad moved into my apartment building, two doors down. Many nights were spent on her couch, watching each other’s shows, volleying great jokes, and sharing ourselves. We entered a post-lockdown world having made a really beautiful friendship.

I had been knitting and crocheting what would become this piece in small bits, with no real end goal in mind. When Sinéad told me she was moving in with her boyfriend (hi Will 👋), I knew this piece was for us.

She once told me matter of fact, in response to my awe at all she was doing to better herself, “I want to live a full life.” That stuck with me, and is the spirit of this piece as I continue to explore with it.

Thank you Sinéad. I love you. 💕

Improv Quilt

up-cycled fabric, machine pieced and hand quilted, 30"x41", 2023

I wanted to try quilting as a way to “build” in a studio apartment. 
I used scrap fabric and started by practicing some traditional quilt blocks, then cut and combined them improvisationally.

Otherside

Otherside, acrylic on canvas, 36"x48", 2021-2022

I started this piece a few months after coming back to teaching fully in-person. Especially for students, acclimating back to socialization was hard. It was exacerbated by constant covid and close-contact absences. Adjusting back to a full teaching workload was a challenge, as I had to renegotiate how to fit in my own creative time. And the shortcomings of the public education system were becoming clearer to me. For the first time, finishing a piece of art didn’t feel like catharsis. Rather, it articulated the level of depression I was in without pointing to a way out of it.