matriarchal legacy painted with light
A SERIES OF CYANOTYPES WITH ASSEMBLAGE
Click on an image to see it in full.
Artist Statement
When I was a child, I would sit cross-legged on a big old office desk while my mother sewed and mended with her sewing machine and by hand. My grandmother was a professional seamstress who could make anything: wedding dresses, school uniforms, custom suits. I learned about my past sitting on that sewing table listening to the hum of the machine as my mother made bedspreads, curtains and clothing.
My parents immigrated to Canada from England before I was born. I hardly knew my grandparents; fleeting visits and staticky phone calls were all we had together. As stitches ran through the fabric, I learned about the lives they had. Mothers are so often the keepers of our history and the creators of our present as the photographers, the homemakers, and the teachers. I learned about mending the past and creating the future from my mother, as she learned from her mother.
Cyanotype is a medium that requires careful planning but has variable, unpredictable outcomes. I coupled the technique with evidence of my mother’s teaching in sewing, cooking and gardening in a body of work that represents the legacy of my mother to me.
Click on an image to see it in full.
Artist Statement
When I was a child, I would sit cross-legged on a big old office desk while my mother sewed and mended with her sewing machine and by hand. My grandmother was a professional seamstress who could make anything: wedding dresses, school uniforms, custom suits. I learned about my past sitting on that sewing table listening to the hum of the machine as my mother made bedspreads, curtains and clothing.
My parents immigrated to Canada from England before I was born. I hardly knew my grandparents; fleeting visits and staticky phone calls were all we had together. As stitches ran through the fabric, I learned about the lives they had. Mothers are so often the keepers of our history and the creators of our present as the photographers, the homemakers, and the teachers. I learned about mending the past and creating the future from my mother, as she learned from her mother.
Cyanotype is a medium that requires careful planning but has variable, unpredictable outcomes. I coupled the technique with evidence of my mother’s teaching in sewing, cooking and gardening in a body of work that represents the legacy of my mother to me.