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“Past Mending” is a new project that incorporates photo-based textile imagery derived from vintage needlepoints depicting idealized landscapes, portraits and still life works. The title is a deliberate play on words that suggests two possible readings: whether these works represent something so damaged or neglected that it is long past the possibility of mending, or whether the works suggest an attempt to repair or mend the past itself.

I began collecting and photographing vintage needlepoint works several years ago and translate the images into digitally woven textiles. These textiles then become the foundation for new works incorporating collage, embroidery, hand dyeing, and material deconstruction. In the still life works, modest imagery is transformed into more dramatic compositions through amplified color and patterning or alternatively dismantled into fragile rag-like forms. In other works, idealized needlepoint landscapes often featuring waterfalls are unraveled with threads cascading beyond the image creating a collapsing illusion of material excess that suggests both abundance and loss. The resulting works also function as a collaborative exchange between an unknown woman’s needlepoint from an earlier era and a contemporary female artist investigating the legacy of domestic handicrafts, authorship, and anonymous labor.

Waterfall, 2026

Woven textile photograph with embroidery mounted on panel, 20”x20”