I’ve been a collector of security envelopes and find myself engaging in the design possibilities of abstracting the small patterns found on the inside of the envelopes by playing around with scale and shape via photoshop.  I’m engaged with the possibility of creating beauty from what is typically trash.  I prepare my screens with these designs and mix inks not knowing in advance what the outcome is going to be but trusting in the possibilities, the process and myself enough to have confidence that all of the time and effort will combine into some idea of Constructed Harmony.

·      Starting with the most mundane of fabrics, unbleached muslin, the muslin is transformed first through dyeing and in these panels there are subtle gradations from light to dark.

·      I screen print on both sides of the cloth to create layers of depth.

·      I then paint on a mixture of bees wax and paraffin that transforms the cloth even more by making it translucent and stiff.  It becomes almost paper-like.

·      If properly back-lit they are transformed into looking like stained glass.    

·      all of this is labor intensive but as I say, each artist has his or her own madness.

·      I wanted the panels to have more dimensional presence so I accordion folded each into a grid and burnished the edges leaving the trace of the grid. 

·      The panels undulate slightly from the wall, unfolded like a map.  This in turn led to the white embroidered“X” that sits on the very top of the surface. Seducing you to linger a little longer.