STATEMENT
Domestic relationships are emotionally and psychologically complex. Under things beautiful lie other things subversive. While the architectural spaces in which relationships exist can display solidity and beauty, the social dynamics they contain can be negative, dysfunctional or deteriorating. The repercussions of these environments can yield unpleasant outcomes, unless the affected individual works against it. In an act of personal affirmation and retaliation, my projects idolize the idea of a life and home complete with moral decency and architectural splendor. Imagined homes are repeatedly planned and rendered upon cloth; each unique, each better than the last but still never as great as the next. Positive yet mildly proselytizing and instructive manuals for societal courtesy are conceived and sewn to scale; massively reproduced into brochures and postcards which are then distributed nationally. Quotidian experiences are transformed into attractive iconography, each embroidered form re-envisioning the past to attain a better future. Drawn from such matriarchal traditions as the sampler, quilting, and tapestries, my work establishes a dialogue between drawing, painting, and embroidery. Thread conveys the color, line and texture of both painting and drawing. Building on this kinship, I utilize the traditional history of embroidery to create images that straddle the line between craft, kitsch, and contemporary art. The medium references any number of domestic ideals: matriarchal crafts, quaint and “problem-free” country living, Grandma’s house, a “simpler time,” charming TV sit-coms with silly 1950s-esque problems and suburban appeal. At once a longing for unrealized nostalgia emerges in contrast to the reality of modern living. 
