Installation: Family of Origin Cockcrowing, composted toile, indigo dyed fabrics, painted fabrics, deconstructed clothing, hand stitching. 77"h x 93"w Best Laid Plans, Stitch resist dyed fabric, acrylic paint, hand stitching. 73"w x 81"w Foundational Garments Series, shirts of the artist's deceased mother, sticks, hair, grommets, laces, weights, composted fabric, acrylic, wood hangers, garment rack, hand stitching. 67"h x 38"w x 36"d

"Family of Origin is a therapeutic term identifying caretakers and siblings that a person grows up with, or the first social group a person belongs to, often a person’s biological of adoptive family."[1] I investigate the tension between idealized images of ’normal’ families and my own, ponder observed experiences of family life, and contemplate the challenges of our large human family. I deconstruct and reconstruct textiles and alter clothing disrupting, reordering and rebuilding real or imagine narratives exploring historical and contemporary women’s roles such as the toil of the maker, the privilege of the wearer, the job of mothering, how to be a ‘good’ daughter, and societal expectation for sexual and emotional expression.

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