…So, what’s it gonna be?

Oil on canvas, cotton blend quilting fabric, decorative ribbon. 2020.

In my work, all destruction is in service of creation. In fact, it can be argued that all craft to some extent involves deconstruction. Nowhere is this principle more obvious than in the quilt building process, where hours and even days can become devoted to accumulating piles of carefully diced fabrics. Eventually, each orphaned segment is rotated, flipped and joined until the final product is completed. At this point, there is no single cotton corner which can be understood without the context of the quilt as a whole. Similarly, when we think about our own identities, there are no details, no decisions, no quirks or traits which retain coherent meaning outside of the context of our lived entirety.

As I cut, bent and sewed the canvas of my self-portrait, was I destroying a perspective of my identity?