Textile Art

IdleWild

(March 2025, 29.5”w x 47”h)

In times of idleness, may we go wild, live according to our own designs, and find ourselves.

In agriculture, when land is no longer producing, the farmer no longer plants, lets the land idle. Then, in growing wild plants, the land is enriched. In this sense, to be still leads to creative exuberance.

LM hand pieced, hand appliquéd, and hand quilted IdleWild using greens for the furrows, and browns and reds for the briars – cotton damask (bazin).

  • 2025, July: Juried into SAQA byCONTRAST: Apparent Contradictions exhibition by Ann Johnston.

    • Rochester, NY at Rochester Contemporary Art Center (RoCo) – from Aug. 30 to Sept. 20, 2025

    • Old Forge, NY at View Arts Center – from Oct. 4 to Nov. 30

    • Trenton, NJ at Trenton City Museum at Ellarslie Mansion – from Jan. 10 to Feb. 8, 2026

    • Rochester, NY at Genesee Valley QuiltFest 2026 – from May 15 to May 17

    • Ossining, NY at Bethany Arts Community – from June 13 to June 29

The Open Door

(2024, 29”× 43”)

I hope that the open door in the midst of a turbulent landscape speaks to the viewer’s relief when finding safe harbor. My personal inspiration is the coast of Maine where a good friend lives.

While walking through the Cornell textile collection, I became fascinated with how pleating is used to add both texture and volume in the making of clothing. In developing the symbolic landscape that became The Open Door, I decided to use flat pleats for the forest and house (background), and loose pleats for the tree, rocks, and waves (foreground). The biggest challenge was working improvisationally, cutting fabric with only a loose pencil sketch as a guide.

Hand pieced and hand quilted from Kona cotton solids.

Mount Vernon, NY

Ice Puddle Pirouette (2)

(2023, 16” × 16”)

Walking one morning in my New York neighborhood during the pandemic, I was stopped in mid-stride by an ice puddle with leaves. I had been contemplating a future unknown, but now found myself mesmerized by fluid balance and color. The image lived in my mind and asked me to think about how season transitions can be gentle and beautiful, even when drastic. Using hand piecing, appliqué, and quilting, I amplify this luminous movement in three panels.

 

Ice Puddle Pirouette

Maple leaves fall, twirl;

Rain falls, whirls and swirls;

Fall twirls, whirls, swirls, and freezes.

Materials: scraps of linen, cotton, cotton thread, fleece batting, nylon tulle

Mount Vernon, NY

For the Love of Africa and the Individuals who constitute the Peoples of this Continent

(2023, 48” x 48”)

Created in Kigali, Rwanda in 2006 with hearts fussy-cut from cotton scraps left from clothing made in Gabon, Benin, and Rwanda. Hand appliqué using needle-turn and feather stitch embroidery, then front pieced by machine. Completed in 2023, quilted by hand.

Kigali, Rwanda and Mount Vernon, New York, USA