Vulnerability & Resilience

Building on the 2020-2022 series of 75 "Americana Quilts," where specific colors represent diverse flesh tones of people in America, the new series includes burnt, scarred, and soot-stained textiles that display imperfections, physical damage, and distortion. Connecting to a larger tradition of American women quilters and feminist practices, I use art quilts as a powerful medium for economic survival and social resistance. Through this sustaining medium, I configure diversely toned fabrics into geometric patterns to abstractly explore the complex issues of race, physical trauma, and resiliency. The "Vulnerability & Resilience" series uses muslin fabrics dyed with plant materials from South Florida, collected old and worn clothing, and various other textiles representing race, pop culture, and the Miami landscape. The works vary in scale, from intimate sketches to expansive wall hangings.

The quilting techniques and structures freely reference traditional geometric quilt patterns and historical symbolic motifs from Amish, Native American, and African American communities. Repurposed textiles are brought together in distorted repeat patterns that obscure the overall shape of the quilts, defying the rectangular format and entering into three-dimensionality. The artwork demonstrates resiliency, staying together despite the patterns' fragility, appearing to be falling or pulling.