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My process begins with collecting used, mass-produced fabric items, which inspire carefully considered paintings. The work transforms discarded, manufactured clothing into representations of the natural world, engaging materiality to inhabit the space between human separation from nature and a yearning for connection.

 For Indigo Rising, a blue polyester shirt serves as still life material for 13 gouache paintings, which together portray a waxing and waning moon. Installed in a 30 foot line, they represent the 29.5 days the moon takes to travel around the earth.

 Each painting depicts a phase of the moon over the course of a month. The folding of the fabric and the use of light source contribute to this aesthetic effect. However, certain parameters are based on a set of calculations: the size of each painted still life is determined by the length of the night for each full moon over the course of a year, while the scale of the actual pattern on the shirt varies according to the distance the moon is from the earth. This act of weaving together the perceptual and sensual with the conceptual and quantitative is one of my recurring artistic impulses.

 All the titles combine the phase of the moon depicted with individual subtitles. For example, in Third Quarter: Theia’s Kiss, Theia’s Kiss references the smaller planet that is thought to have collided with the young earth, slightly off center, creating the moon.