Indigo Compositions

In 2014 I became interested in the cloth created by a Chinese ethnic minority who dye their homespun cotton with indigo. The cloth is dyed and dried several times and then soaked in a brew of ox or pig blood, raw hide, persimmon skins and pounded chestnut shells. When the fabric is dry, one side is covered with egg whites and then the cloth is beaten with a heavy wooden mallet resulting in the sheen on one side of the cloth.

Indigo Composition Nos.3-14 are a series of self-portraits. To most people I seem very strong and self sufficient. Only upon closer inspection can you see the detail, complexity, and fragility of my emotional base. Like this fabric, for the careful observer there is a lot to discover.

In 2021, my sister, brother and I moved my mother from her house of 46 years to an assisted living memory care unit. In less than a week we dismantled a house that was built by my father and full of my mother’s art. It was an upsetting experience. It was the only house I knew as a child, and was full of family memories. Indigo Composition Nos. 15-20 seek to capture the jarring emotions I felt in the aftermath of the move and during that difficult week.

Indigo Composition No. 21

2022
86” x 86”

Indigo Composition No. 20/Stroke

2022
44”H x 50”W
Hand painted cotton, acrylics
Machine pieced and stitched
Private collection

Indigo Composition No. 19

2022
37”H x 37”W
Chinese Indigo cotton, hand dyed and painted cotton , acrylics
Machine pieced, machine and hand stitched

Indigo Compositon No. 19, detail

Indigo Composition No. 17

2021

38”H x 32.5”W

Chinese Indigo cotton, hand dyed and painted cotton, acrylics
Machine and hand pieced, machine and hand quilted
Abstraction: Textural Elements, Max Berk Textile Collection, Palatinate Museum in Heidelberg, Germany