Spinster Sister Restaurant, Santa Rosa, CA 2023

My art is a snapshot of where I’m at, wiggling around in my little corner of space, using my eyeballs to wildcraft local geometry and my hands to blend and press colors. I’m simply an Earthworm with internet.

Every lush harvest of quilts comes from well-amended soil. My studio is a flowerbed, layered with every color of fabric, and to this I add my proprietary blend of frequent iphone breaks. I create from a rich compost of Googling how cephalopods communicate, what bird was that, when was the telescope even invented? I wonder how full Lake Sonoma is today, should I teach my dog to talk using buttons, and there must be water on Saturn moons. Memes add nitrogen, podcasts unlock phosphorus, and tiktoks add potassium. I indulge in the wormholes of information at my fingertips, and break it down with the mycelium of texting my vast friend network into bioavailable pieces. All this gets sewn together.

I find transcendence in the space where Very Sharp Tools
meet Very Soft Fabric.

Slicing and stabbing and ironing is so dangerous! It’s an exhilarating rebellion against all the parents, far too often, telling kids to be careful. I temper that impulse by sharpening my blades and pulling out the Good Fabric.

I used this show as an opportunity to try some new things, to expand my skills, to bring others into my process, and to explore evidence of the handmade. Folks have been talking a lot about AI surging through our creative spaces, and that’s fine, because it’s been getting me to fall deeper in love with my human imperfections. My work features backwards-facing seams, loose threads, wobbly lines, and unfinished quilting: all things a robot would fear.

An Expansive Collaboration: In July 2022, upon her passing, I had the immense honor of acquiring the fabric stash of visionary author and Bay Area artist Ann Shulgin. Ann, like all us artists, squirreled away bins of beautiful textiles and shiny notions to use when inspiration came. In an effort to amplify her cosmic pulse, I created several of these pieces from her colorful collection. If you’re not sure who Ann Shuglin is, please give her a search and read all about the enormous contributions she made to therapeutic psychedelic exploration the last 60 years.