Fiber Art
Everyone lives in a "watershed" where water gathers and flows down hill, joining other waterflows until it reaches the sea. While water quality is recognized as a major global issue, recognizing watersheds means that my neighbors and I have a role to play in the condition of our waterways. In addition to the families up and down our road, my immediate neighbors include farmers, a major business park with heavy traffic and acres of asphalt, retail business and large open spaces. All of us participate in the health of or threat to our waterways.
My art is frequently a visual expression of my social justice concerns. In this series, "My Watershed," I followed the trickle of water from our yard and the creek behind our home to the Gulf of Mexico. I am speaking to our shared responsibility to keep our water safe, clean and healthy.
12″W X 41″H Hemp/cotton/sand from the creek: photo transfer, hand dyed and printed, appliquéd, embroidered My watershed begins with the small trickle of water that flows behind our home. When I researched our county records for the name of this creek, I learned it was classified as a “ditch,” a low point that […]
32½”W X 18″H Hemp/cotton: hand dyed and printed, appliquéd, embroidered Pope Lick is a creek that meanders through much of what I consider my “neighborhood.” Pope Lick Park is where my son played soccer as a child and what child in our town never heard of the “Pope Lick Monster,” the ghost who lives under […]
14½”W X 41½”H Hemp/cotton: hand dyed and printed, appliquéd, embroidered Starting in Henry County, Floyd’s Fork runs 62 miles through eastern Jefferson County. It is named in honor of John Floyd, an early leader who settled in Louisville more than 240-years ago and was fatally wounded by natives near the confluence of […]
41″W X 21½”H Hemp/cotton: hand dyed and printed, appliquéd, embroidered The Salt River runs 150-miles through central Kentucky, draining towns, some industry and much farming. My husband’s ancestors settled on the banks of the Salt River in the early nineteenth century and we have a copy of a journal recording life on the farm during […]
20″W X 43″H Hemp/cotton: hand dyed and printed, appliquéd, embroidered Waters originating on the western slopes of the Appalachian mountains, running down the Alleghany and Monongahela Rivers, join at current day Pittsburgh to become the Ohio. Connecting major cities as it does, it has long been significant to inland transportation, making barges […]
48″W X 27″H Hemp/cotton: hand dyed and printed, appliquéd, embroidered The natural floodplain of the Mississippi River forms one of the most fertile regions of the country. Consequently, as settlers moved into the area, farming thrived along with the accompanying cities and industries, all vulnerable to flooding of the river. The solution has been to […]
42½”W X 38″H Hemp/cotton/sand from the Gulf shore: hand dyed and printed, appliquéd, embroidered The Gulf of Mexico is a roughly 615,000 square mile oceanic basin, connected to the Atlantic Ocean through the Florida Straits between the U.S. and Cuba, and with the Caribbean Sea through the Yucatan Channel between Mexico and Cuba. The shallow […]
