DESERT TABLESCAPES

“I’m drawn to the perspective and juxtaposition of dropping a table setting into the raw landscape of the high desert.”

The idea of dropping a cloth-covered table setting into the raw desert is an unexpected delight for me. My resulting art is off-kilter, a bird’s eye view that conjures an out-of-place scenario. I like to think of myself sitting at a table amid an ethereal landscape wrapped by mountains.

Color inspiration for each piece begins with a “tablecloth” extracted from my long-collected stash of new, vintage, re-purposed, and other natural-fiber fabrics from around the globe. Additional fabrics are then selected to represent the desired colors and patterns of the mountains and desert and its scant vegetation. Instead of working from a particular sketch or photograph, I draw from a collected memory of the land that has become familiar to me.

I freely cut shapes from various woven materials and move the pieces around until they generate a design that feels right to me—re-trimming, re-shaping, and adding as needed. The process is organic and layered. Hand-stitched elements, paint, and acrylic mediums complete the final details.