Though craft is seen, often erroneously, as symbol of feminine duty and submission, my textile process largely rejects mainstream capitalist masculine manufacturing, consumer housewares lines, and instead empowers matriarchal influence. Rather than simply decoration or consumer products, these noncommercial objects refuse the fast homewares phenomena, IKEA, Amazon Prime, etc, and ponder the commercial fetishization of home when it is accessible to so few and homelessness is increasingly common. My quilts are inspired by the traditions of power devolution through women of the ancients and traditional cultures worldwide. My quilts (and previous baskets, carpets and blankets) and their imagery and symbols are inspired by my youth in rural Indiana growing up surrounded by Amish communities, and 20 years spent working and traveling in Africa, the Middle East, Scandinavia, and beyond.
 

In the gallery, quilts are placed on air mattresses, hang from rafters and drape across retractable clotheslines. Piles of stuffed paper cushion sketches/collages pop up here and there. Walls are covered with photographs and wood block prints. My work asks viewers to consider artwork that is created outside the traditional contemporary art gallery sphere and to rearrange/reimagine the common gallery space.