2025

We are cast under the magical spell of artificial intelligence. It has seamlessly integrated into many aspects of our daily lives without us fully understanding the reach and impact to individuals, society, and the environment. Self-driving cars and virtual assistants are enticing and now everywhere. Superhuman efficiency and precision of AI diagnostics in healthcare and natural disaster management are saving lives. But, AI is largely unregulated, unrestrained, and dangerous as propaganda and surveillance engines. And then, there’s the very possibility of sentient AI so powerful humanity is imperiled. We journey onward to unimaginable possibilities.

58.5” x 58.5”

Cotton, found sequins and beads, thread, batting

Machine stitched, hand embroidered and beaded

2022

In the 1960s, Jessie B. Telfair was fired from her job at a Georgia school cafeteria for registering to vote. Her now famous quilt with FREEDOM repeated many times still reflects the struggle for voting rights. In 2021, 19 states passed 34 laws restricting access to voting and an additional 440 bills with restrictive voting provisions were introduced in 49 states.

The right to vote is the cornerstone of democracy protected by our Constitution. Lamentably, the attack on democracy goes far beyond our borders. Putin invaded Ukraine as I was assembling this project. I paused and reflected on my choice of red for the background. So, I began anew with blue to symbolize truth, freedom, and hope, and redesigned the area in yellow in support for Ukraine and my wish for world peace.

46” x 46”

Found/recycled cotton, thread, recycled batting; machine pieced, hand quilted

6.23.2023 — Accepted into ArtUs Co’s Colors Unraveled exhibition in Austin, Texas (July 8 - August 5, 2023)

3.12.2025 — Accepted into SAQA Global Exhibition Now: Contemporary Art Quits of Today, juried by Sandra Sider. This will exhibit at the International Quilt Festival in Houston, Texas (October 8 - 12, 2025)

2021

Private collection, Florida

In this second year of the pandemic, extreme natural disasters, and extremer divisive politics, how does one not succumb to anger and despair?

Recently, while feeling disheartened, I came upon the Dalai Lama’s album, Inner World. In the last song ‘Humanity’ he gently speaks about violence and killings due to human emphasis on “we and they, me and them.” Instead he advised compassion and connection to our fellow brothers and sisters, irrespective of differing beliefs.

Hearing his soothing words lifted my spirits and I began this project with one small red heart and proceeded improvisedly. Love is tolerance and respect. Love is comfort and refuge. Love is color-blind and inclusive. Love is kindness and hope. Love is the answer.

35.5” x 30”

Found fabric, recycled clothing, found beads, felt, sashiko thread, machine thread, batting; Machine-pieced, hand-quilted, hand-beaded and satin-stitched hanging hearts

11.29.2021 — Accepted into SAQA Regional Exhibition The Artist’s Question...Answered in Fiber. Premieres at Florida CraftArt Gallery in St. Petersburg (April 25 - May 14, 2022)

2021

The fashion industry is the second-largest consumer of world’s water supply and produces more carbon emissions than international flights and maritime shipping combined each year. Washing synthetic clothes releases 500,000 tons of microplastics (such as polyester that does not break down) into the ocean each year — equivalent to 50 billion plastic bottles.

Plastic pollution threatens marine life. Oceans are an important source of food and host to 80% of the planet’s biodiversity. Healthy oceans reduce climate change impact by absorbing 90% of excess heat and 30% of greenhouse gas emissions.

The fast-fashion trend compounds these problems. People buy more of cheaper clothing and keep them for a lot less time — sending 85% of all textiles to landfills each year.

Indeed, there is growing consumer awareness for sustainable and ethical fashion. But the best way to be truly sustainable is to buy secondhand and make do with less. This project was created with found materials.

26” x 42”

Reverse side of upholstery fabric, cut to mirror image components, was separately constructed before joined with hand stitching; machine-quilted, hand-beaded, hand-embroidered; Found fabric, found beads, found metal rings, bamboo stick, thread, found batting

11.17.2021 — Accepted into SAQA Global Exhibition sustainABILITY. Premieres at the New England Quilt Museum in Lowell, Massachusetts on October 5, 2022, and then will tour to additional venues

2022 — 2025 EXHIBITION SCHEDULE

— New England Quilt Museum, Lowell, MA: October 5-December 31, 2022

— Windgate Museum of Art, Conway, AR: February 3-March 17, 2023

— AQS QuiltWeek, Grand Rapids, MI: September 13-16, 2023

— AQS QuiltWeek, Des Moines, IA: September 27-30, 2023

— St. George Art Museum, St. George, UT: June 1-August 31, 2024

— San Jose Museum of Quilts & Textiles, San Jose, CA: January 16-April 13, 2025

2021

On the free table at my local quilt guild, I’d found a plastic bag filled with 300+ cotton squares in many prints including 22 half square triangles; all perfectly cut 2.5 inches. I had these for a couple of years, unsure what to do. Perhaps it’s the turbulent politics, amid the second year of the pandemic, that I turned my attention to something simpler.

I’m inspired by the American history of quilting. So as not to waste a single fabric scrap, women stitched remnant pieces together in thoughtful designs – utilitarian yet imaginative and deeply personal. I challenged myself to use all the found squares and create new work while honoring this tradition of patchwork and hand quilting. The square is the most elemental patchwork form and the “One Patch” is a quilt pattern archetype embodying American resilience and resourcefulness.

The border and backing fabrics were also found.

50” x 40”

Machine pieced, hand quilted; found fabric, embroidery thread, machine thread, batting

2021

Of all birds on Earth, just 30% are wild and 70% are farmed poultry. As the human population approaches 8 billion, chicken has become the world’s most consumed meat – 50 billion chickens yearly. Our natural world is critically out of balance. And over the next century, an estimated 1,200 wild bird species face extinction.

In addition to depleting water resources and degrading climate, animal production is notorious for cruel and inhumane treatment. Farmed birds are excluded from all U.S. federal animal protection laws. The United States is the world’s top producer of chicken meat.

Healthy wild bird populations are essential to human life. Birds are natural pest control devouring insects that can destroy crops or spread diseases; scavengers dispose carcasses. Birds disperse plant seeds integral to resilient ecosystems. Birds’ sensitivity to habitat change are vital indicators of environmental dangers. And by the sheer numbers of avid birdwatchers around the world – 45 million in U.S. alone contributing $80 billion to the U.S. economy – birds are fascinating and beautiful creatures that bring joy to their lives.

Conservation is an important component of my art practice. All visible materials on this project were found or upcycled, including an old kitchen towel fortuitously containing a cartoon chicken.

47.5”h x 54”w

Machine-pieced, hand-tied; found furnishings fabric, recycled cotton, found beads, recycled sequins, found embroidery floss, thread, batting

Second image is detail

8.15.2023 — Accepted into Round Rock Arts The Big Show exhibition, juried by Sonia Colonna-Mathis, at the Avery Building Gallery, Texas State University, Round Rock (September 1 - November 19, 2023).

2020

This tumultuous year has brought attention to and amplified many inequities in our society. It is also the 100th anniversary of the 19th Amendment when women won the right to vote and with it, the prospect of gender equality.

Gender norms are changing but women still spend significantly more time on parenting and housework than men do. The pandemic lockdown has exacerbated this bias where work, school and childcare are confined to the home – especially for the 72% of moms with paying jobs; this figure is markedly higher for women of color.

Women represent 57% of the U.S. workforce, but of the Fortune 500 CEOs, 7% are held by women. For the past 4 decades, more women than men have attained college degrees (including associate’s, bachelor’s and master’s degrees); women outpaced men earning PhD’s for the past 12 years. Despite higher education achievements and workforce participation, women earn an average of 80 cents for every dollar paid to a man; women of color earn less.

Moreover, the United States is the only advanced nation that does not guarantee women the right to paid maternity leave. The lack of work-family policies and affordable childcare continue to be barriers to women achieving equity in the workplace.

In this abstracted image, devalued “women’s work” – cooking (represented by a pot), cleaning (vacuum), laundry (iron), child rearing (baby bottle) – disappears into the background (the home).

55”h x 36”w

Machine-pieced, hand-quilted; found fabric, cotton, thread, batting

5.02.2022 — Contract signed to lend Women’s Work Then and Now to Arts in Embassies of the U.S. Department of State for a 3-year exhibition in Tegucigalpa, Honduras. Exhibit to be installed later this summer.

2020

One in three Black males will go to prison in their lifetime. The 13th Amendment abolished slavery in 1865 but a loophole clause allowed for enslavement if convicted of a crime. The result is staggering racial disparities in American legislative and criminal justice systems.

The U.S. has 4% of the global population but has 25% of global prison population – the most of any nation with 2.2 million people incarcerated and an additional 4.5 million people on probation or parole. Black Americans make up 13% of general population but 34% under the control of the criminal justice system.

I designed a simple weave pattern to best illustrate Black lives in mass incarceration, as well, to conjure images of abstracted African masks – a symbol of ancestral spirits.

51”h x 38.5”w

Machine-pieced, hand-quilted; recycled tablecloth, cotton, found fabric, thread, batting

3.09.2021 — Accepted into SAQA Global Exhibition Connections. Premieres at the International Quilt Festival in Houston, Texas on October 27, 2021, and then will tour to additional venues

2021 — 2024 EXHIBITION SCHEDULE

— International Quilt Festival, Houston, TX: October 27-31, 2021

— International Quilt Festival, Salt Lake City, UT: July 21-23, 2022

— International Quilt Festival, Long Beach, CA: August 4-6, 2022

— Genesee Valley QuiltFest, Rochester, NY: May 17-19, 2024

2020

In early spring, the humble toilet paper made headline news for weeks. As fear and frenzy gripped people around the world, I wanted to reflect on this shared and surreal moment.

38” x 38”

Paper was cut, stapled and machine stitched to fabric, machine-pieced, hand-tied; toilet paper tubes, fabric, staples, found beads, thread, batting

Full image photo courtesy of The Dairy Barn Arts Center; detail image below is by artist

7.10.2020 — Accepted for book Quarantine Quilts: Creativity in-the-Midst-of Chaos by Sandra Sider, to be published in September 2021.

10.09.2020 — Accepted into Quilt National ‘21 at The Dairy Barn Arts Center in Athens, Ohio (May 28 - September 6, 2021).

5.28.2021 — Awarded the purchase prize for Most Innovative Use of Material at Quilt National ‘21.

9.03.2021 — A subset of Quilt National ‘21 artworks, including T.P.Mania, will exhibit at San Jose Museum of Quilts and Textiles in California (October 8, 2022 - April 16, 2023).

Collection of the International Quilt Museum, University of Nebraska, Lincoln