JO-HS, Artist in Residence, 2024
For the month of July, 2024, I was invited to be the artist-in-residence at JO-HS gallery in San Miguel Chapultepec, CDMX. During this time, I began developing a new series of paintings on naturally dyed, sewn, and constructed surfaces of linen, cotton, silk, and canvas, inspired by pastel drawings I’d been making throughout the year. The dyes used for the fabrics originate from a variety of natural sources including: cochineal, madder root, lac, logwood, cutch, indigo, marigold, turmeric, rosemary, avocado pits, cabbage, oak galls, iron, elderberries, hibiscus, and mint. Over the course of 4 years, prior to the residency, I had been exploring ways to combine the narrative, symbolic, and surreal qualities accessible in figurative painting, with the tactility and corporeal nature of textiles. This body of work is the newest synthesis of these explorations and relationships between painting and fibers.
Clutched by Sun & Sea 40h x 30w inches
He Asked Me to Draw Him Flowers 40h x 30w inches
Botanical Constructs / Garden Webs 51h x 51w inches
Interior Natures 30h x 40w inches
Embrace 30h x 40w inches
Seated nude (homage to GO'K) 72h x 54w inches
The Bather (Cascade) 72h x 54w inches
For these works, I blocked out designs through drawn “maps”, or a series of geometric shapes, and labeled each shape with a color. Using the naturally dyed fabrics, I constructed sewn surfaces based on those maps, stretched the fabric collages, and used this patch-worked material as a painting surface. I want the painted image and the geometry and color of the constructed fabric space to both play equal roles in the finished piece. The dye, the quality of the fabric, and the painted marks all work in tandem to achieve the final result.