Woven Journals: Images / Descriptions

Woven Journals chronicle an intimate and informal relationship between materials and the maker; the fabric, paint, thread and pencil. They are human made, rich in inaccuracies. The result is intentionally accessible and inclusive. There is no glass or thick film to separate you from the work. This vulnerability lends a sense of intimacy to the often small scale brush work and delicate marks from thread and pencil.

Each of these works are constructed of fabric that is prepared to accept media. There is no paper. Prior, during and or after application of media, the fabric sections have been altered, stitched, marked or paired with cotton thread and a sewing machine.

The modified fabric sections have each been mounted to a sealed wood panel of varied origins. The panels are contained by a dadoed groove cut into 1”x 2” Douglas Fir, then framed with finger jointed fir moulding.

All materials have been sealed and varnished to the manufacturer’s specifications, leaving a look of vulnerability, yet well protected.

My intention is to give equal consideration to the domestic traditions of sewing construction and wood working while using the tradition of paint to document, share or come to terms with a particular experience or narrative.

The grain of warp and weft are traced by sewing machine stitches onto a linen napkin from my grandmother. Worn and tattered; the “home pattern” encompasses and is effecting layers of pine and maple.

maple veneer, dadoed fir, cotton thread, linen napkin, acrylic

2022

20"w x 21"h sold

Limb language; understory words and vocabulary, foreign letter forms, penciled-in journal notes, dark and light, thick and thin, twisted, akimbo. Intermingling of languages and fragments of place weave together while light and heavy planes expose varied properties of transparency.

maple veneer, dadoed fir, cotton muslin & thread, acrylic, pencil

2022

32"w x24"h sold

Our relationship with time; the calculation and assessment of time, the reflection of time that has passed all seem muddled. Keeping track of time; hours, days, weeks months and years . . . seem more difficult in the last 2 years than I remember it being. Using excessive repetition has been a reoccurring theme that fascinates me; instead of causing a dullness in our viewing, it causes a sense of curiosity to seek out the unique qualities of an individual element. Yes, hour after hour, day after day, week after week, and so on seem repetitive yet the miraculous truth of existence is that all moments are one of a kind.

maple veneer, dadoed fir, cotton thread & repurposed duvet cover, acrylic

2022

41"w x 32"h sold

A familiar trail in October of 2020 is woven with a grid of stitching in a sequence toward a vanishing point of the picture plane. Continuing the weave pattern are survey marks and appraisal notes, drips and directional woodgrain; reminders of other experiences and relationships to this quiet trail.

wood veneer, dadoed fir, cotton muslin & thread, acrylic, pencil

2021

24"w x 25"h sold

Remember when the pandemic experience was still “novel”? Despite the severity of our global crisis, it seemed as though our efforts were making a difference; we stayed-in-place, there was much less traffic and noise. This hushed reflective quality would be replaced; on this day it felt good to be outside; even though a state of melancholy persisted.

maple veneer, dadoed fir, cotton muslin & thread, acrylic, pencil

2021

26"w x 30"h sold

The works in this series focused on how materials, methods and concepts can be woven into a single piece to aide in depicting a complexity and duplicity to our current condition. There is no focal point in most of these works. The intention is for the image area to function as an environment within the rectangle.

Forest Alterations is a take-it-all-in-at-once environment. The ascending arrangement of dark to light, the directional diagonal lines drawing you deeper into the forest yet, simultaneously the whole environment is jumbled and broken up, a severed and reassembled arrangement. Like the clear cutting patchwork of our forests we have assessed and appraised, gridded and divided.

As in each of these paintings, the grid, the lines, the shapes are informally arranged; in this case lending an awkward somewhat clumsy quality to the alterations of the forest not idealized perfection.

wood veneer, dadoed fir, cotton muslin & thread, acrylic, pencil

2022

32"w x 48"h $1800.00

Familiar, unfamiliar: what can I take for granted? We assumed so much; perhaps didn't appreciate enough? Grey and white stripes from a former duvet cover mimic or prompt a patterned state in my perception of a typical scene of a young maple tree on the edge of an open field.

maple veneer, dadoed fir, cotton thread, repurposed duvet cover & handkerchief, acrylic, pencil

2022

22" w x 20"h sold

Our familiar Willamette Valley Oregon climate has deeply effected my being, my identity, my understanding of where and how I fit into the planet and why I am here and stay here. Events of the years 2020 and 2021 have shaken those relationships. The Little North Fork area of the Santiam River has been a refuge, whether I was physically there or not. The habitability of Willamette Valley summers have been a given, whether I am present or not. The fires of 2020, the 117’ day of 2021 have pulled a rug out from under my home comfort.

However, AS well as all of the above relationships with this place the NW also carries a progressive and creative atmosphere so I can’t help but to have some hopeful optimistism. Fire and Ice includes an upwards directional progression of dark to light value, with a hint of familiar light hearted polka dot print.

wood veneer, dadoed fir, cotton thread, fabric, silk,  acrylic

2022

26"w x 30"h sold

Transparency / opacity, revealing / obscuring; once again a densely painted image is stretched back into space through the use of atmospheric perspective, while a patterned swatch of fabric encroaches upon the illusion. Interrupted stitching causes thread segments to seem suspended “mid-air”. Each aspect informs the other; am I seeing polka dots in the landscape, is the breeze making marks in the sky?

maple veneer, dadoed fir, cotton muslin & thread, acrylic, pencil

2022

32"w x 24"h sold