SOWING IN THE FIELD OF MERCY
60”x30” Fiber Art Sculpture, 2024
I carved Mary's profile into a linoleum block in December 2018. It was then that I heard a faint whisper of what was dwelling within me.
In the half-decade since, I have created fabrics and alchemically transformed vintage cloth believing that one day these bits and pieces would become a visual poem.
Woven, dyed, eco-printed, and unraveled fibers of silk, wool, linen, bamboo, and cotton have led me to remember and re-discover their meaning.
As Mary sows, enfolded and embraced, she walks in an infinite field of mercy.
May we enter this field also,
sowing seeds of hope
and creating a harvest of unity and love
where ever
we walk and with all whom we meet.
Mary's Profile: collage of eco-printed and folded shibori-dyed linen, cotton and silk, woven and indigo-dyed linen and silk. Mary's Tear: Bigtooth maple pod, symbolism ~ love.
Mary's Bodice: 1955 Okinawan silk chiffon, mouline cotton embroidery.
Mary's Designs: half-square triangle quilt blocks, eco-printed cotton, painted silk, hand-stitched.
Mary's Hands: vintage cotton gloves, dyed in holy basil tea, half-square triangle quilt blocks composed of shibori and eco-printed linen and kimono silk. Bouquet in Left Hand: wet-felted icelandic wool and curly lamb locks; American basswood leaf and pod: symbolism ~ simplicity, innocence, protection, change.
Mary's Apron: woven tencel; indigo painted warp and weft; vintage buttons; half-square triangle quilt blocks composed of shibori and eco-printed linen and kimono silk.
Mary's Shift: vintage sari silk; folded shibori turmeric-dyed; vintage Italian silk indigo-dyed; vintage kimono silk eco-printed; vintage linen, stitched, shibori, staghorn sumac-dyed; half-square triangle quilt blocks.
Mary's Field: eco-printed silk and vintage kimono silk; hand-stitched.
Mary's Field: stitched and eco-printed silk and vintage kimono silk eco-printed and nuno-felted.
Mary's Feet: vintage cotton Japanese tabi slippers, dyed in holy basil tea, half-square triangle quilt blocks composed of shibori and eco-printed linen and kimono silk. Mary's Walking Skirt: eco-printed, silk-painted vintage kimono silk, silks, linens, wools
Mary's Folded Purse: eco-printed vintage cotton with embedded quote: "the first and foremost great weaver, collecting and binding the broken parts of our lives in a tapestry of divine love"
