In this painting from the series "Ground Work," I start with clothing that already has a history, mine, my family's, friends', and pieces sourced from secondhand stores. I cut each garment apart, sleeves, pockets, seams, cuffs, collars, then rearrange and hand stitch the pieces into a new surface. Nothing is painted or worked over afterward. The cutting, stitching, and stretching onto the frame are the finished work, left alone once complete.
This puts the paintings in conversation with stitched textile traditions, Boro, Gee's Bend quilting, and a painting lineage more concerned with surface and accumulation than illustration. The clothing's original function disappears, what remains is the garments' own record, stitches, collars, pockets, bodies no longer present.
