Embroidered and hand-dyed wearables
Apron, At a very young age I would always watch my parents hard at work lugging large flour bags, measuring out ingredients and loading the oven with their finished doughs. As a child, I didn’t quite grasp the idea of this hard labor, as it looked to me like a rhythmic dance- almost resembling a performance act. With routine, they danced around each other, always focused, constantly moving. Through my awareness of these patterns and repetitions over the last 20 years, I explore the idea of movement and chaos -taking a plain apron and bringing it to life by exaggerating details and manipulating the flat surface. These embellished “stains” represent both the beautiful and messy intricacies of this working environment that I grew up in.
Hand mx dye, thread, layered fabrics; quilted
Colognese_1_detail
Manipulated Membrane
Hand dyed, embroidered, heat pressed; quilted
Colognese_2_detail
Colognese_2_detail_2
When I imagine a landscape I envision a melodic arrangement of forms, shapes and colors constantly in flux. My textiles are improvised paintings plucked from my material surroundings and realized through the lens of fiber. An important feature in my work is my deliberate use of color. Working intuitively, color interpretations free me from boundary restrictions in relation to my surroundings -both natural and man made- and allows for more fluidity and a focus on movement within each piece.
Nature fascinates me with its intricacies and complexities of ever-changing forms. As things all around me catch my eye, I include them in my work -interpreting what causes them to live and breathe into texture, form and color. Man-made forms such as industrial shapes and the materiality of my urban landscape also inform my work. From playing with shapes that originate from plants on a microscopic level such as plant cells, to architecture that surrounds me, -by warping, distorting and overlapping, I play with the idea of nature vs artificiality by adding layers of saturated chemical colors, bright synthetic threads, and shiny plastic foils. Layering allows my work to constantly replicate itself in new ways, freeing me to create as I go.