Ghost Polka Dot Scarf

The Awareness, Holding In, and Quietly, Quietly are part of an ongoing series of works that feature my painted figure merging with woven atmosphere. These large-scale weavings begin with altered photographic images of my body, which are painted onto the threads of my warp. The cloth is then woven, embedding the figure within the structure. I magnify form and gesture in my figures by stripping color and detail from the original images. This, along with the exaggerated scale of the works, reflects an internal reality and the depth of emotional states made visible and physical. The familiar, yet strange and seductive surface of this cloth environment draws the viewer close. Through this surface I entice them to enter, and perhaps recognize, the vastness or vulnerability of the mental space I project.

The works in the woven ink blot series are intended to step back from personal narrative and consider not the subjects of my perception, but the nature of perception itself. Inspired by the history and form of the inkblot, I am making a series of cloth-embedded monoprints that explore the subtleties of symmetry, the binary, and the breakdown and reformation of information within the brain. In my process of creating a mirror image, I apply a monoprint onto woven fabric. I then unweave my cloth, separating the image into its vertical and horizontal elements, before reweaving the image alongside itself. I am interested in the resulting form as an imaginative trigger, as well as the shifts and subtle irregularities that occur during the physical process of weaving as a tool for deconstruction and reconstruction.

n addition to examining the narrative that plays in my own mind, I have begun a body of work that steps back from the personal to consider not the subjects of my perception, but the nature of perception itself. Inspired by the history and form of the inkblot, I am making a series of cloth-embedded monoprints that explore the subtleties of symmetry, the binary, and the breakdown and reformation of information within the brain. In my process of creating a mirror image, I apply a monoprint onto woven fabric. I then unweave my cloth, separating the image into its vertical and horizontal elements, before reweaving the image alongside itself. I am interested in the resulting form as an imaginative trigger, as well as the shifts and subtle irregularities that occur during the physical process of weaving as a tool for deconstruction and reconstruction.

The Awareness, Holding In, and Quietly, Quietly are part of an ongoing series of works that feature my painted figure merging with woven atmosphere. These large-scale weavings begin with altered photographic images of my body, which are painted onto the threads of my warp. The cloth is then woven, embedding the figure within the structure. I magnify form and gesture in my figures by stripping color and detail from the original images. This, along with the exaggerated scale of the works, reflects an internal reality and the depth of emotional states made visible and physical. The familiar, yet strange and seductive surface of this cloth environment draws the viewer close. Through this surface I entice them to enter, and perhaps recognize, the vastness or vulnerability of the mental space I project.

The Butterfly Cage was built over a two-month concentrated session at Penland School of Crafts in the North Carolina Mountains. There I took an iron sculpture studio in order to learn how to work with metal, as I am interested in incorporating it with fiber.

In the seventh grade, I learned about Gregor Mendel and his pea plants. The lesson was meant to introduce us to the science of genetics and inheritance, but I took away something much more romantic, and this particular notion has remained with me my entire life. It was a vision of Mendel, surrounded by dirt-smudged notebooks, scattered seeds and delicate seedlings performing his intricate and mysterious work on his plants, asking himself over and over: “What if?” Then would come the waiting, waiting for the living plant to reveal its answer, slowly with the first peek of green above the surface, then more and more, so very slowly.

I thought of Mendel quite a lot as I worked on this collection of weavings. It is an exploratory series, visible evidence of the labors of a weaver examining the mechanics of her craft in minute detail. These works are called Cross Pollinations because they each contain warp and weft threads from two separate painted weavings, which have been taken apart and crossed with each other to create something entirely new. I watched these pieces come to life as I wove them, bent close over the loom and full of curiosity and wonder, as though they were my own seedlings emerging slowly from the ground. Welcome to my garden.

These pieces are from of a larger body of work called The Garden, the Library, and the Labyrinth.  I imagine them as specimens, collected flora and fauna from an ethereal place.  Each work in this series was created by handweaving cloth, painting the cloth, unweaving and then reweaving it to create two mirrored images from one.  By altering words and images through this extensive process of making/unmaking/mirroring, where tools, skill, and chance must collaborate, I literally open them up and pick them apart, to return them less defined.  There, where the edges blur and centers shift, our imaginations will meet at the open-ended story, in a space that is at once a meandering garden, a twisting labyrinth, and an endless library.

All works exhibited in The Garden, the Library, and the Labyrinth (Quirk Gallery, Richmond, VA)

I am deeply enchanted by words and stories, both in content and as visual pattern.  I see a direct connection between language and weaving, between a woven work and a text.  This has led me to incorporate important pieces from some of my favorite texts into my own works: as these words are transcribed, pulled apart, then laid down again they become like subliminal enchantments, holding the beauty of the original message like a whisper within the woven cloth.  My text-based works are created by handweaving cloth, painting the cloth, unweaving, then reweaving it to create two mirrored images from one.  By altering words through this extensive process of making/unmaking/mirroring, where tools, skill, and chance must collaborate, I literally open them up and pick them apart, to return them less defined.  There, where the edges blur and centers shift, our imaginations will meet at the stories they create.

Text from The Garden of Forking Paths, by Jorge Luis Borges

All works exhibited in The Garden, the Library, and the Labyrinth (Quirk Gallery, Richmond, VA)

These pieces are from of a larger body of work called The Garden, the Library, and the Labyrinth. I imagine them as specimens, collected flora and fauna from an ethereal place. Each work in this series was created by handweaving cloth, painting the cloth, unweaving and then reweaving it to create two mirrored images from one. By altering words and images through this extensive process of making/unmaking/mirroring, where tools, skill, and chance must collaborate, I literally open them up and pick them apart, to return them less defined. There, where the edges blur and centers shift, our imaginations will meet at the open-ended story, in a space that is at once a meandering garden, a twisting labyrinth, and an endless library.

Landscape with Water #3 exhibited in Small Expressions (The Textile Center, Minneapolis, MN)

All works exhibited in The Garden, the Library, and the Labyrinth (Quirk Gallery, Richmond VA)

These pieces are from of a larger body of work called The Garden, the Library, and the Labyrinth. I imagine them as specimens, collected flora and fauna from an ethereal place. Each work in this series was created by handweaving cloth, painting the cloth, unweaving and then reweaving it to create two mirrored images from one. By altering words and images through this extensive process of making/unmaking/mirroring, where tools, skill, and chance must collaborate, I literally open them up and pick them apart, to return them less defined. There, where the edges blur and centers shift, our imaginations will meet at the open-ended story, in a space that is at once a meandering garden, a twisting labyrinth, and an endless library.

Text from Earth, by Federico Garcia Lorca

All works exhibited in The Garden, the Library, and the Labyrinth (Quirk Gallery, Richmond, VA)

I am deeply enchanted by words and stories, both in content and as visual pattern. I see a direct connection between language and weaving, between a woven work and a text. This has led me to incorporate important pieces from some of my favorite texts into my own works: as these words are transcribed, pulled apart, then laid down again they become like subliminal enchantments, holding the beauty of the original message like a whisper within the woven cloth. My text-based works are created by handweaving cloth, painting the cloth, unweaving, then reweaving it to create two mirrored images from one. By altering words through this extensive process of making/unmaking/mirroring, where tools, skill, and chance must collaborate, I literally open them up and pick them apart, to return them less defined. There, where the edges blur and centers shift, our imaginations will meet at the stories they create.

Text from Moby Dick, by Herman Melville

All work exhibited in The Garden, the Library, and the Labyrinth (Quirk Gallery, Richmond, VA)

I am deeply enchanted by words and stories, both in content and as visual pattern. I see a direct connection between language and weaving, between a woven work and a text. This has led me to incorporate important pieces from some of my favorite texts into my own works: as these words are transcribed, pulled apart, then laid down again they become like subliminal enchantments, holding the beauty of the original message like a whisper within the woven cloth. My text-based works are created by handweaving cloth, painting the cloth, unweaving, then reweaving it to create two mirrored images from one. By altering words through this extensive process of making/unmaking/mirroring, where tools, skill, and chance must collaborate, I literally open them up and pick them apart, to return them less defined. There, where the edges blur and centers shift, our imaginations will meet at the stories they create.

Text from The Magic Mountain, by Thomas Mann

Again We Ask…and Again Echo Answers exhibited in Art Olympia (Tokyo, Japan, awarded honorable mention)

Changes (What is Time?) exhibited in Velocity of Textiles (Georgia State Ernest G Welch Gallery, Atlanta, GA)

All works exhibited in The Garden, the Library, and the Labyrinth (Quirk Gallery, Richmond, VA)

These pieces are from of a larger body of work called The Garden, the Library, and the Labyrinth. I imagine them as specimens, collected flora and fauna from an ethereal place. Each work in this series was created by handweaving cloth, painting the cloth, unweaving and then reweaving it to create two mirrored images from one. By altering words and images through this extensive process of making/unmaking/mirroring, where tools, skill, and chance must collaborate, I literally open them up and pick them apart, to return them less defined. There, where the edges blur and centers shift, our imaginations will meet at the open-ended story, in a space that is at once a meandering garden, a twisting labyrinth, and an endless library.

All works exhibited in The Garden, the Library, and the Labyrinth (Quirk Gallery, Richmond, VA)

Cloth, in its seemingly infinite varieties of texture, weight, appearance, and significance, is deeply linked to our histories and emotions through the corporeal body. A simple touch can trigger vivid memories and powerful associations; some unique to a single life, some shared across an entire culture. I make cloth that pulls at these connections, investigating relationships between our physical bodies and mental spaces through the act of weaving cloth by hand. By imbedding handwoven cloth with the language of the body, I bring tangibility and tactility to psychological landscapes and emotional states. Here, the monumental quality of scale suggests a mental rather than physical space. Alone or in reflective pairs, all my figures are stains within cloth, like faint remainders of a life. They are my connecting threads, binding personal experience with the shared experience of being human.

All works exhibited in The Garden, the Library, and the Labyrinth (Quirk Gallery, Richmond, VA) and Out of Tradition (Flanders Gallery, Raleigh, NC)

Touch Memory #2 exhibited in Building Upon the Past (Page Bond Gallery, Richmond, VA)

Cloth, in its seemingly infinite varieties of texture, weight, appearance, and significance, is deeply linked to our histories and emotions through the corporeal body. A simple touch can trigger vivid memories and powerful associations; some unique to a single life, some shared across an entire culture. I make cloth that pulls at these connections, investigating relationships between our physical bodies and mental spaces through the act of weaving cloth by hand. By imbedding handwoven cloth with the language of the body, I bring tangibility and tactility to psychological landscapes and emotional states. Here, the monumental quality of scale suggests a mental rather than physical space. In many of my works the body is painted onto woven cloth, the cloth is unwoven, then new cloths are woven from the original warp and weft, extracting two distinct and subtly different images from one. This process evolved from my fascination with the inkblot, which, like cloth itself, simultaneously embodies the unique individual experience and our collective understanding. Alone or in reflective pairs, all my figures are stains within cloth, like faint remainders of a life. They are my connecting threads, binding personal experience with the shared experience of being human.

Body Blot #1 is part of the permanent collection of the North Carolina Museum of Art

Body Blot #1 exhibited in Lasting Impressions (Lorie Saunders Gallery, Norfolk, VA), Where We Meet (True Luck Gallery at the Visual Arts Center, Richmond, VA) Binary (Philadelphia Art Alliance, Philadelphia, PA), Mindbody (Artspace Gallery, Raleigh, NC) and Rijswijk Textile Biennial (Museum Rijswijk, Rijswijk, The Netherlands)

Body Blot #2 exhibited in Two Artist One Space (Green Hill Center, Greensboro, NC), Interwoven (Ruth Funk Center for Textile Arts, Melbourne, FL), Tacit (True Luck Gallery at the Visual Arts Center, Richmond, VA) and Binary

Body Blot #3 exhibited in ArtFields (Lake City, SC), Ambiguity and Interface (Taubman Museum, Roanoke, VA), Where We Meet, and Lasting Impressions

Cloth, in its seemingly infinite varieties of texture, weight, appearance, and significance, is deeply linked to our histories and emotions through the corporeal body. A simple touch can trigger vivid memories and powerful associations; some unique to a single life, some shared across an entire culture. I make cloth that pulls at these connections, investigating relationships between our physical bodies and mental spaces through the act of weaving cloth by hand. By imbedding handwoven cloth with the language of the body, I bring tangibility and tactility to psychological landscapes and emotional states. Here, the monumental quality of scale suggests a mental rather than physical space. Alone or in reflective pairs, all my figures are stains within cloth, like faint remainders of a life. They are my connecting threads, binding personal experience with the shared experience of being human.

The Veiling #2 is part of the permanent collection of the North Carolina Museum of Art

All works exhibited in Two Artist One Space (Green Hill Center, Greensboro, NC), Out of Tradition (Flanders Gallery, Raleigh, NC), and Where We Meet, True Luck Gallery at the Visual Arts Center, Richmond VA

Cloth, in its seemingly infinite varieties of texture, weight, appearance, and significance, is deeply linked to our histories and emotions through the corporeal body. A simple touch can trigger vivid memories and powerful associations; some unique to a single life, some shared across an entire culture. I make cloth that pulls at these connections, investigating relationships between our physical bodies and mental spaces through the act of weaving cloth by hand. By imbedding handwoven cloth with the language of the body, I bring tangibility and tactility to psychological landscapes and emotional states. Here, the monumental quality of scale suggests a mental rather than physical space. In many of my works the body is painted onto woven cloth, the cloth is unwoven, then new cloths are woven from the original warp and weft, extracting two distinct and subtly different images from one. This process evolved from my fascination with the inkblot, which, like cloth itself, simultaneously embodies the unique individual experience and our collective understanding. Alone or in reflective pairs, all my figures are stains within cloth, like faint remainders of a life. They are my connecting threads, binding personal experience with the shared experience of being human.

Exhibited in Ambiguity and Interface (Taubman Museum, Roanoke, VA) and Where We Meet (True Luck Gallery at the Visual Arts Center, Richmond, VA)

The works in my on-going woven inkblot series are intended to step back from personal narrative to consider the nature of perception itself. Inspired by the history and form of the inkblot, I use a unique process of weaving, unweaving, and reweaving cloth to explore the subtleties of symmetry, the binary, and the breakdown and reformation of information. To create an inkblot through weaving, I begin by staining or painting handwoven cloth. Next the cloth is unwoven to separate the stain into its vertical and horizontal elements, and then rewoven to create two separate but mirrored versions of the original cloth. These inkblot works are literal records of their making, from the spontaneous application of dye and pigment onto the original cloth to the carefully controlled weaving process that creates the final bilateral image. I am interested in the physical process of weaving as a tool for deconstruction and reconstruction, using the visible shifts and subtle irregularities of the resulting form as an imaginative trigger.

All works exhibited in Binary (Philadelphia Art Alliance, Philadelphia, PA)

Blot #1 exhibited in Where We Meet (True Luck Gallery at the Visual Arts Center, Richmond, VA) and Mindbody (Artspace Gallery, Raleigh, NC)

Blot #2 exhibited in Lasting Impressions (Lorie Saunders Gallery, Norfolk, VA), Mindbody, and Interwoven (Ruth Funk Center for Textile Arts, Melbourne, FL)

Blot #3 exhibited in Taking Shape (Benchspace Gallery, Asheville, NC and Houston Center for Contemporary Craft, Houston, TX), and Mindbody

Blot #4 exhibited in Interwoven, Where We Meet

In seventh grade, I learned about Gregor Mendel and his pea plants. The lesson introduced us to the science of genetics, but I took away a more romantic vision of Mendel. Surrounded by dirt-smudged notebooks and delicate seedlings, he performed his intricate and mysterious work, asking: “What if?” Then waiting… Waiting for the living plant to reveal its answer, slowly with the first peek of green above the surface, then more. I thought of Mendel as I worked on this exploratory series of weavings, my evidence of the labors of a weaver examining the mechanics of her craft in minute detail. These works are called Cross Pollinations because they each contain warp and weft threads from two separate painted weavings, which have been taken apart and crossed with each other to create something entirely new. I watched these pieces come to life as I wove them, bent close over the loom and full of curiosity and wonder, as though they were my own seedlings emerging slowly from the ground.

All works exhibited in Cross Pollinations (Quirk Gallery, Richmond, VA)

Purple Trio 2 and Narrow Lines 3 exhibited in Extreme Textiles (Muskegon Museum, Muskegon, MI)

In seventh grade, I learned about Gregor Mendel and his pea plants. The lesson introduced us to the science of genetics, but I took away a more romantic vision of Mendel. Surrounded by dirt-smudged notebooks and delicate seedlings, he performed his intricate and mysterious work, asking: “What if?”… Then waiting. Waiting for the living plant to reveal its answer, slowly with the first peek of green above the surface, then more. I thought of Mendel as I worked on this exploratory series of weavings, my evidence of the labors of a weaver examining the mechanics of her craft in minute detail. These works are called Cross Pollinations because they each contain warp and weft threads from two separate painted weavings, which have been taken apart and crossed with each other to create something entirely new. I watched these pieces come to life as I wove them, bent close over the loom and full of curiosity and wonder, as though they were my own seedlings emerging slowly from the ground.

All works exhibited in Cross Pollinations (Quirk Gallery, Richmond, VA)

In seventh grade, I learned about Gregor Mendel and his pea plants. The lesson introduced us to the science of genetics, but I took away a more romantic vision of Mendel. Surrounded by dirt-smudged notebooks and delicate seedlings, he performed his intricate and mysterious work, asking: “What if?”… Then waiting. Waiting for the living plant to reveal its answer, slowly with the first peek of green above the surface, then more. I thought of Mendel as I worked on this exploratory series of weavings, my evidence of the labors of a weaver examining the mechanics of her craft in minute detail. These works are called Cross Pollinations because they each contain warp and weft threads from two separate painted weavings, which have been taken apart and crossed with each other to create something entirely new. I watched these pieces come to life as I wove them, bent close over the loom and full of curiosity and wonder, as though they were my own seedlings emerging slowly from the ground.

All works exhibited in Cross Pollinations (Quirk Gallery, Richmond, VA)

In seventh grade, I learned about Gregor Mendel and his pea plants. The lesson introduced us to the science of genetics, but I took away a more romantic vision of Mendel. Surrounded by dirt-smudged notebooks and delicate seedlings, he performed his intricate and mysterious work, asking: “What if?”… Then waiting. Waiting for the living plant to reveal its answer, slowly with the first peek of green above the surface, then more. I thought of Mendel as I worked on this exploratory series of weavings, my evidence of the labors of a weaver examining the mechanics of her craft in minute detail. These works are called Cross Pollinations because they each contain warp and weft threads from two separate painted weavings, which have been taken apart and crossed with each other to create something entirely new. I watched these pieces come to life as I wove them, bent close over the loom and full of curiosity and wonder, as though they were my own seedlings emerging slowly from the ground.

All works exhibited in Cross Pollinations (Quirk Gallery, Richmond, VA)

Cloth, in its seemingly infinite varieties of texture, weight, appearance, and significance, is deeply linked to our histories and emotions through the corporeal body. A simple touch can trigger vivid memories and powerful associations; some unique to a single life, some shared across an entire culture. I make cloth that pulls at these connections, investigating relationships between our physical bodies and mental spaces through the act of weaving cloth by hand. By imbedding handwoven cloth with the language of the body, I bring tangibility and tactility to psychological landscapes and emotional states. Here, the monumental quality of scale suggests a mental rather than physical space. Alone or in reflective pairs, all my figures are stains within cloth, like faint remainders of a life. They are my connecting threads, binding personal experience with the shared experience of being human.

All works exhibited for Thesis Exhibition (Anderson Gallery, Richmond, VA)

The Weaver’s Bench exhibited in Materiality (Ann Street Gallery, Newburgh, NY), Two Artist One Space (Green Hill Center, Greensboro, NC), Cutting Edge (Textile Arts Center, Brooklyn, NY) and Mindbody (Artspace Gallery, Raleigh, NC)

Shift exhibited in Out of Tradition (Flanders Gallery, Raleigh, NC) Binary (Philadelphia Art Alliance, Philadelphia, PA) and Interwoven (Ruth Funk Center for Textile Arts, Melbourne, FL)

Cloth, in its seemingly infinite varieties of texture, weight, appearance, and significance, is deeply linked to our histories and emotions through the corporeal body. A simple touch can trigger vivid memories and powerful associations; some unique to a single life, some shared across an entire culture. I make cloth that pulls at these connections, investigating relationships between our physical bodies and mental spaces through the act of weaving cloth by hand. By imbedding handwoven cloth with the language of the body, I bring tangibility and tactility to psychological landscapes and emotional states. Here, the monumental quality of scale suggests a mental rather than physical space. Alone or in reflective pairs, all my figures are stains within cloth, like faint remainders of a life. They are my connecting threads, binding personal experience with the shared experience of being human.

Comfort exhibited in Ambiguity and Interface (Taubman Museum, Roanoke, VA), Lasting Impressions (Lorie Saunders Gallery, Norfolk, VA), Where We Meet (True Luck Gallery at the Visual Arts Center, Richmond, VA), Rijswijk Textile Biennial (Museum Rijswijk, Rijswijk, The Netherlands) and Multiple Personalities (Craft Alliance, St. Louis, MO)

From Here exhibited in Forecast (Penland Gallery, Penland, NC), Rijswijk Textile Biennial, Multiple Personalities, and Two Artists One Space (Green Hill Center, Greensboro, NC)

Holding In exhibited in Two Artists One Space, Interwoven (Ruth Funk Center for Textile Arts, Melbourne, FL), Mindbody (Artspace Gallery, Raleigh, NC) and Almost Famous (Bev Reynolds Gallery, Richmond, VA)

Quietly, Quietly exhibited in Interwoven, Lasting Impressions, Kinsey Institute Juried Show (Grunwald Gallery, Bloomington, IN) and the traveling exhibition Fiberart International 2011

The Awareness exhibited in the 5th International Student Triennial (Marmara University, Istanbul, Turkey). Collected by Marmara University.

This series explores the elements I engage in my textile work, specifically layering, line, and positive/negative space, on a different scale and through a different interface. It is an intimate study of the intersections of natural and man-made pattern and disruption of pattern. The things that catch my attention: bricks and roots, library shelves, skin cells…these systems are reorganized, distilled into careful and curious white-on-black line drawings.

All works exhibited at Capital One (Richmond, VA) and The Winter Show (Green Hill Center, Greensboro, NC)

Like the deep connection to weaving that inspires my technical investigations, my need to explore my own experience as a way to connect with a collective human experience is a theme that continues to shape my work. A passionate reader, I am drawn to text as pattern, symbol, and vessel. I am fascinated by our ability to share a mental space through written language: text becomes the meeting place of writer with reader. Like the inkblot, I use text as a symbol of our intertwined subjective and collective experience. I use words that are rich in content: poetry, and metaphors of time or weaving. Through the process of weaving, writing, unweaving, and reweaving these words I create a new subliminal text; one that asks the viewer to place their own subjective meaning into the ghosts of words imbedded in cloth.

Texts from Gacela X, by Federico Garcia Lorca, The Library of Babel by Jorge Luis Borges, and One Hundred Years of Solitude, by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

All works exhibited in The Island Entropic (Capital One, Richmond, VA)

The works in my on-going woven inkblot series are intended to step back from personal narrative to consider the nature of perception itself. Inspired by the history and form of the inkblot, I use a unique process of weaving, unweaving, and reweaving cloth to explore the subtleties of symmetry, the binary, and the breakdown and reformation of information. To create an inkblot through weaving, I begin by staining or painting handwoven cloth. Next the cloth is unwoven to separate the stain into its vertical and horizontal elements, and then rewoven to create two separate but mirrored versions of the original cloth. These inkblot works are literal records of their making, from the spontaneous application of dye and pigment onto the original cloth to the carefully controlled weaving process that creates the final bilateral image. I am interested in the physical process of weaving as a tool for deconstruction and reconstruction, using the visible shifts and subtle irregularities of the resulting form as an imaginative trigger.

All works exhibited in The Island Entropic (Capital One, Richmond, VA)

These works are an early exploration of the qualities and properties of handwoven cloth and thread in space, utilizing transparency, shadow and layering.

Density exhibited in the traveling exhibition Fiberart International 2007.

The Butterfly Cage was created over a two-month studio concentration at Penland School of Crafts in the North Carolina Mountains, courtesy of the Windgate Fellowship and the Center for Craft, Creativity and Design. Techniques include iron casting, forging, welding, and etching.

These works are an early exploration of the qualities and properties of handwoven and commercial cloth and thread in space, utilizing transparency, shadow and layering. Using the metaphor of cloth as skin and shell, they examine the protective yet vulnerable membrane between internal and external space. This series marks the first use of my own body in my work, a theme that continues today.

The Lady Series was responsible for my receiving a 2007 Windgate Fellowship.

Cloth is a language, complex and multi-faceted, which I use as a critical lens to understand and interpret the world around me. I work specifically with cloth I weave by hand. Having chosen to work in this craft-based and still marginalized medium, the decision I made five years ago to expand my studio practice beyond conceptual artwork and into functional textiles was not taken lightly, and the experience has been rich, complex, and enlightening. My skills as a weaver and my critical perspective as an institutionally trained fine artist have together given me a unique position to create textiles that inspire comfort, connection, and a deeper sense of the importance of the choices we make regarding the objects we bring into our lives and spaces. From this position, making and consuming becomes a moral and political act, a statement of values. The artworks in the Crown Jewel Series are a reflection of my experience, from within the privacy of my studio and out into the public domain, of opening up my artistic practice and creative energy to functional work. Through the form of the humble scarf I examine the larger questions at work in the tensions of my practice: the potential and handicap of craft, the value of labor, the arbitrary values of objects based on classification of art or not art, the commodity of time. In blurring and confusing those sliding-scale distinctions that work to assign value and position to people and objects, I hope to create space for reconsideration of these systems. The Crown Jewel Series is generously supported by a Windgate Fellowship Project Grant from the Center for Craft, Creativity, and Design.