personal project

 

Paisley, FL

fabric, relief printing ink, embroidery thread, black tea

33" x 29"

detail

detail 

fabric dyed with black tea

stitching details

printing the tail

My work entitled Paisley, FL is a constructed fictional artifact from a real place that has been special to my family for generations. I wanted to make something that would look right at home in the run-down 1970s fishing cabin on the lake where my family goes fishing. The cabin is practically abandoned but still full of vintage furniture and a hand pump sink. It has turquoise floor-to-ceiling paint coated in years of grime. The kitchen counter is covered in fish hooks and lures. My focus for Paisley, FL was to replicate the contrast of lovely and grimy that makes the cabin so charming. To achieve this, I used the tail of a largemouth bass to make the dark inky imprints on delicate curtain fragments. I attached them onto tea-dyed cotton that I embroidered with an intuitive pattern of flowers and abstract stitching. Dying the fabric aged the new material to something archaic. Through Paisley, FL, I explore the relationship between lasting beauty and inevitable decay.