When my mom was a young girl, she and her friends would tape letters on their backs and lay in the sun until their name became a sun-tanned tattoo. Here in Minnesota, we had a long, brutal winter, and today is a gift of sunshine and warmth. It seems a long time ago that I was collecting natural materials and distilling tinctures. Over the winter, I printed with them on cotton and silk.

Speculation [work in process], 2014. Cotton, natural dyes, screen-printing, stitching, sun

This piece is a work-in-process called Speculation. Natural dyes can be less colorfast than the synthetic dyes I've used for 30 years. I asked myself, how can fading be a positive effect? Can the changing nature of the patterns be captured and integrated into the textile? Stitched tucks resist exposure to the sun, and when released, will expose the history of what was once there. Each day, I'll stitch more tucks, and expose again. Stay tuned.

Speculation 2014  [detail] — Speculation 2014 [detail]