July | 2023 | terriloui

Fabrications 2006 – 2016

I found a cache of my older art images and seeing them again is like seeing a lost but not forgotten friend.

I’ll never be reunited with the art lost to our Dec. 2018 house fire, but these digital versions are bringing all the best parts back to me – like a big old, grinning bear hug with my BFF.

My Fabrications came about in 2005 after saying YES YES YES to hand-me-down bags of old family linens. I was inspired by handling the doilies, placemats, linen napkins and tablecloths. Most were used, some worn or torn, all having concluded the domestic, formal era. I saw these linens as material ripe for repurposing – viable with integrity, great appeal and creative value.

I never quite learned to sew in my early years. I dabbled but mostly watched my Mom work her mending magic by hand or at her Singer sewing machine.

My artistic approach to working with these fabrics as an adult, was to disassemble then cobble together, randomly mix-and-match, in an outsider, Great Auntie-shocking, reimagined way – with a nod to my grandparents domesticity and a middle finger to cultural affluenza.

I showed the Fabrications at the Arts Center in Orange, April 2006. I hung 18 pieces in the show, sold 4, and taught a shadow-box collage workshop with 10 like-minded, collector attendees.