This work emerged during a period of mourning. After my father died, I inherited forty years of family slides. Each one being a window into moments, relationships, and family history. These images held memories the way my grandmother’s quilts, stitched from clothing scraps, held the memory of the people who once wore them. That parallel prompted me to use a similar method of assembly. Stitching together slides I created garments that evoked specific family members — aprons, scarves, shawls — and as I joined images of relatives I had lost with those still living, I felt as though I was stitching my family back together, piece by piece, memory by memory.

My, Scottish immigrant, grandfather always wore a three-piece suit, carried an umbrella like a cane, and used it to stop traffic when he wanted to cross the road. He was hit by a car and received a ticket for j-walking. He wore a hat and silk neck scarf every day; unless his job required a uniform. I knew him as an artist who made colorful geometric designs, but he was a pastry chef and also made cheese at a dairy where he lost part of his finger in a bottle capping machine. The day I was old enough to vote he took me to the election office to register. He was a proud American! This scarf is about the size of James Robertson Benvie’s silk scarf.

Comfort Scarf

Dimensions: 9.50/11” X 51”

Materials Used: Slide film positives, crochet thread, buttons accumulated by four generations of women

Comfort Series

Comfort Shawl

Dimensions: 36” X 28/36”

Materials Used: Slide film positives, 35mm movie film, buttons, glass beads, crochet thread threaded rod on the back allows it to be hung on the wall or suspended away from the wall.