Buzzing/Flying
2003
67″ x 93″
Collection of the artist
Language, particularly as found in the urban environment, provides a rich source of inspiration for my quilts. The use of written symbols in my work balances an appreciation of their abstract beauty with the desire to include the “found art” of relevant texts. However, since the natural tendency to read a text disrupts emotional or intuitive responses to the work, I try to circumvent this in several ways. Using individual letters or ideograms from exotic or obsolete languages; using the text decoratively as a repeating pattern in the background; by so cropping and chopping the text that it becomes illegible; or by concealing the text in the quilting stresses the graphic quality for the viewer. Although it is often assumed that I am partial to deconstructive linguistic theory, this isn‚Äôt so: I find these theories too dry and academic. I am a visual artist, working with the sensual, evocative and challenging medium of cloth.
