The Days of Wine and Roses, Textile, Bleach, Ink
2024
In The Days of Wine and Roses, I explore sexuality and queerness through the traditional lens of quilting. The quilt is made up of bedsheets, window blinds, and found lace. The fabrics are hand dyed, and the illustrations are created with ink, bleach, and embroidery. Infamous sex icons, originally meant to appeal to the male gaze, such as Pamela Anderson, Paris Hilton, and various porn stars are depicted across the quilt. Instead of being criticized, their hyper-femininity is intertwined with queer imagery, rewriting them as queer icons. Placed alongside illustrations from my personal life of me and my partner, I am dreaming of a world free from the male narrative.
Violets Amongst Grass, Textile, Beading
2024
Violets Amongst the Grass, uses second hand slip skirts and under dresses, combined with historically queer, lesbian coded symbolism. Violets are acknowledged as one of the oldest significant ways to communicate queer identity, specifically lesbian identity during times it was unsafe to be out.
Situated on the front of the skirt is a small bouquet of beaded violets, honoring the underground queer community that has always existed and thrived despite fear and lack of representation. Among the flowers is a strap on tag, another symbol of queerness that goes initially unseen to cis straight eyes. Pleats are sewn in the first layer of fabric, draping around the form, with a dramatic slit in the front, framing the legs. The intimate fabrics I chose to work with speak to queerness by representing what was forced to be an intimate aspect of your identity. An unspoken language that only communicates to others in the community. It is a piece honoring the resilience of the LGBT community that used to have to rely on this hidden language to find others and chosen family.
Second Skin, Textile Body Wear
2022
Second Skin, is a physical exploration of shame, and how it is held within our bodies. The wearable piece juxtaposes the push and pull between empowerment and shame, with sexual imagery depicted through the embroidery work. The skin tight garment in the snowy environment highlights the vulnerable nature of shame and how uncomfortable it can be to hold within ourselves.