WINNER!  DIRECTOR’S CHOICE AWARD -  Woodlawn Pope and Lehighey House 57th Annual Needlework Show and Sale - theme: Suffragettes

Silk and Crewel Wool Hand Embroidery and Beadwork on antique Mirror, Enamel, found objects (funnel, tubing)

According to the Alice Paul Institute (Mount Laurel, New Jersey), Alice Paul (b 1885, d 1977) was an American Feminist, Political Strategist and Suffragette leader in both Great Britain and the United States.

Practicing Quakers, Paul’s parents taught their children to believe in “gender equality and the need to work for the betterment of society...”. Although her family had wealth, Paul and her siblings were raised ”very simply...with responsibilities instilling the values of industry and perseverance...”

After graduating first in her High School Class, Alice Paul attended Swarthmore College, a co-educational institution founded on the principle of equal education for both sexes by her grandfather, Judge William Parry.  Shortly after graduation, Paul went to Birmingham, England to study Social Work.

While overseas, Alice was swept up in the British Suffrage Movement, falling in with the Pankhurst women, a mother and two daughters at the forefront of the protests there.  “Deeds Not Words,’ was their rallying cry, and this group demanded attention through “direct and visible measures, such as heckling, window smashing and rock throwing...”.  Paul joined in, personally breaking more than 48 windows, and was arrested and jailed for her behavior.  

While jailed, Paul organized hunger strikes.  Authorities responded by brutally force feeding her and the other strikers by twice daily inserting a rubber hose into their nostrils and down into their throats, then flooding their stomachs with a medically unadvisable mixture of raw eggs and milk, poured through a funnel held above their immobilized heads.  

After her final release, Paul returned home in 1910 and became a leader in the Suffrage movement in the United States.  She was appointed head of the Congressional Committee in charge of working for a federal suffrage amendment, and moved to Washington, DC, organizing what she hoped would be an attention grabbing Women’s March down Pennsylvania Avenue to disrupt the inauguration of Woodrow Wilson.  With no police intervention, the marchers were physically attacked by onlookers, which newspapers covered sympathetically to Paul’s cause.

In her effort to get a national amendment, Paul organized her followers as “Silent Sentinels,” who peacefully picketed outside the White House with Banners written to shame Wilson to make change.  The women were attacked by mobs, arrested then jailed for “obstructing traffic.”  

While imprisoned in the Occuan Workhouse, Paul and the other suffragettes demanded to be treated as political prisoners, and when that demand was rejected, they staged hunger strikes.  Authorities responded with “brutality...suffragists, including frail, older women were beaten, pushed and thrown into cold, unsanitary and rat-infested cells.”  

As one of the leaders, Alice was again forcibly fed raw eggs and milk twice daily, this time with the rubber hose inserted directly down her throat.  This torture went on for 35 days until news of the treatment reached the press and public sympathy turned fully toward the women and their cause.

My portrait honors the sacrifices she and others made for my right to vote while challenging viewers to engage in a moment of self reflection while examining her experience.

Commissioned for Woodlawn Pope Leighey House in Alexandria, VA in celebration of 100 years of Women’s Suffrage in the United States

Famously silent, Greta Garbo was a master of voluminous expression without ever uttering a word. A rolled eye and an arched brow (or just wishing you felt safe enough to roll your eye or arch your brow) are sometimes the only way to answer a racist “joke” or a Ford F-150 plastered with intimidating NRA screeds, or the unwanted brush of a supervisor’s hand.  Again, the viewer is invited to look directly at themselves through the work, contemplating if they are the problem, or, if like Garbo, they, too, are finally ready to speak.    

An epic fail which taught me the importance of selecting clear and well lit source material, this piece is the portrait that wasn’t, until, with a little paint and lace, it was.  Is he watching you, or are you watching him?

An epic fail which taught me the importance of selecting clear and well lit source material, this piece is the portrait that wasn’t, until, with a little paint and lace, it was.  Is he watching you, or are you watching him?

Made of woven slung sequins mounted to a prepared canvas and anchored with shimmering glass beads. Everyone knows that the cure for a blazing hot August day is as close as a quick drive to Burnet County: destination Krause Springs. You strip then plunge, overjoyed in the relief of FREEZING cold… DRIPPING wet… and finally, UNCONTROLLABLE SHIVERS!! You have to be a real Texan to understand.

Hung against a sunny window, this shimmering homage to cool delights the senses with movement, light and a watery presence. I made this work in 2014 as a way of fighting against the awful drought and confining heat that was gripping Texas; to remind myself what if felt like to be shivering with cold, soaking wet, and seeking out (instead of avoiding) the heat of the blazing sun.

Interwoven sewn sequins on a deep velvet ground. Austin festivals are a blast. As night falls, the city streets fill with people, each one rushing to meet their friends, catch a movie, or listen to their new favorite band. But there is more going on... Everyone – and I mean everyone - is clutching a smartphone in their hands, bowing to the technology as it guides their every experience. Meals are meticulously researched, executed and instagrammed. Routes between activities are valued by length, not by scenery. Chance is unavailable. The herds are both followed and guided by their GPS, and every move is documented in the clouds, even if the stars are shining brightly. In the piece, thousands of hand sewn sequins in dozens of lines weave, bob and intersect across a deep velvet ground, with each tiny dot representing the movements of the phones and the people who follow them. Who and what was seen, and who and what was missed?

Interwoven sewn sequins on a deep black velvet ground. Austin festivals are a blast. As night falls, the city streets fill with people, each one rushing to meet their friends, catch a movie, or listen to their new favorite band. But there is more going on... Everyone – and I mean everyone - is clutching a smartphone in their hands, using the technology to guide their every experience. Meals are meticulously researched, executed and instagrammed. Routes between activities are valued by length, not by scenery. Chance is unavailable. The herds are both followed and guided by their GPS, and every move is documented in the clouds, even if the stars are shining brightly. In the piece, thousands of hand sewn sequins in dozens of lines weave, bob and intersect across a deep velvet ground, with each tiny dot representing the movements of the phones and the people who follow them.

Based on an exquisite Alfred Stieglitz photograph of his wife, Georgia OKeefe's hands, my homage also includes a nod to MC Escher's hands drawing hands. In this piece, I appropriated the original Stieglitz image by shifting the medium from Stieglitz's photography to hand embroidery, a method of mark making that was more closely associated with O'Keefe. MC Escher's paradoxical hands drawing hands became hands embroidering hands in my piece, which also features active needles and thread. Prize Winner, Fiber Artists of San Antonio 2016 Annual Show. Winner: hand embroidery prize

With a provocative wink, my work explores art history through feminine - now feminist tools: needles, wire and thread. With meditative stitches and hidden structure, I reimagine flat planes of shadow with visual images that leap dimensionally toward viewers with depth that is present and unabashedly real.

My “Deep Eddy” reinterprets Roy Lichtenstein's "Drowning Girl," (in the MoMA collection) with a specific ATX twist - if you have to ask what it means, then you ain’t from Austin.

This work appropriates Lichtenstein’s original by turning the medium and methodology on its head: purposely dimensional instead of pointedly flat, diminutive rather than oversized, and marking with tiny, hand wrought knots instead of oversized stenciled dots.

True art history nerds may also recognize an homage to Hokusai’s “Wave” woodblock print. The original appropriation was Lichtenstein’s; I chose to double down on his re-interpretation by adding a dimensional layering of the enveloping water.

Based on Van Gogh's self portrait in the collection of the Institute of Art in Detroit, this wool crewel embroidery features a dimensional stump work hat brim worked in a woven pattern mimicking straw. The hat extends about 3" from the surface of the small portrait, shading St. Vincent from the summer sun.

I think a lot about the way that artists have been visually depicted, either through their own self portraits, portraits by other artists, or (in more modern times), photographs.
My interest is in finding a different way to "paint" these images, by using fiber as an expressive medium, utilized not to replace other media, but as a way of taking these images into a different, unexplored direction.
Since the rise of internet culture, everyone with a smart phone makes "artistic" self portraits; therefore portraiture is moving  toward a different modernity, as most self portraits aren't at mirror's length, but are exactly an arm's length away.
My portrait of Amanda was taken directly from her utterly contemporary and fast loading social media feed, and, while purposely rendered in the most slow and ancient of mediums, this work explores the new modernity found in the caving of an extended shoulder, the carefully pursed lips, and the guarded yet very "Instagramable" expression.

Detail - A hand embroidered portrait of Amanda Jean Ack.  Silk and Alpaca wool on Rayon and Silk velvet.

A dinner party yielded a fine bouquet of parrot tulips, which inspired this silk crewel embroidery on black velvet. Although this ready to hang floral accent is diminutive in size, this piece is finely detailed, and took about two weeks to stitch entirely by hand. The back is completely encased in velvet, and features hand sewn trim and embellished metal findings.

It all started with Ansel' Adam's terrific picture of the great Georgia O'Keefe standing in the desert in what must have been her favorite hat. In my diminutive hand embroidered portrait, featuring a dimensional, shade throwing hat brim, I chose to wrap Georgia in a blanket fashioned after her own Sky Clouds painting, which hangs over the smaller grand staircase at the Art Institute of Chicago.

It all started with Ansel' Adam's terrific picture of the great Georgia O'Keefe standing in the desert in what must have been her favorite hat. In my diminutive hand embroidered portrait, featuring a dimensional, shade throwing hat brim, I chose to wrap Georgia in a blanket fashioned after her own Sky Clouds painting, which hangs over the smaller grand staircase at the Art Institute of Chicago.

The flip side of the ubiquitous selfie is a quickly stolen portrait of a teenager posted proudly on a parent’s social media.  This portrait of a dear cousin once removed is a love letter to her mother, who captured one last childhood moment of her daughter over a meal of guacamole and chips.  

Audrey Hepburn in a white pop collar shirt.  I wanted to see if I could make an embroidered wired stump that could be blended directly into the body of what I was embroidering.  There are two collars in this piece; the larger (more forward one) was set early in the process and the shirt was essentially embroidered on top of it.Silk crewel embroidery and stump work.

I have reinterpreted the most iconic photo of famed surrealist Salvador Dali with tonal crewel embroidery in silk, worked on an upcycled antique linen. This diminutive portrait features an extravagant stump work mustache which adds a dimensional component to the piece.

The portrait of Secretary Clinton is entirely hand embroidered using tonal silk fiber on a black silk velvet ground.  The piece is self framed and trimmed with black velvet, and measures 9” in diameter. 

The portrait is based on a school aged photograph of a young Hillary Rodham, and, in exactly the same way that the press and less than half of the electorate saw her, young Hillary is presented in polarized black and white, with only one hint of color: a large scarlet A upon her collar.  At first glance, the mark appears to compliment the Secretary’s intelligence, good grades, and general success as an intellectually gifted female, but, like Hawthorne’s Hester Prynne, young Hillary is also forever marked with damnation; criticized unfairly, not by her character, intellect or actions, but by a Puritanical judgement of her husband’s behavior.

The Portrait of Donald Trump is entirely hand embroidered on silk damask using crewel wool, silk and metallic fiber.  There is a wired stumpwork component, which is hand embroidered in silk fiber. The portrait is self framed and trimmed with black velvet, and measures 7” X 9” (oval). 

The most prominent feature of the piece is a waving wired stump work toupee, which lifts to reveal the Candidate’s and America’s love/hate relationship with him, and, particularly, with  his Twitter proclamations.  As he was presented by a malleable press, the Donald is portrayed in vibrant, garish technicolor; a shiny and exciting tchotchke that is all flash and no substance.  The toupee projects about 2.5 inches from the picture plane, and can be manipulated (in the manner of a ventriloquist’s dummy), to reveal or hide his thoughts.  For a special collector, I will be happy to hand sew an additional hanger to the lower portion of the back, so that the portrait can be hung upside down.

Based on Van Gogh's self portrait in the collection of the Institute of Art in Detroit, this wool crewel embroidery features a dimensional stump embroidery hat brim worked in a woven pattern mimicking straw. The hat extends about 3" from the surface of the small portrait, shading St. Vincent from the summer sun. This view shows that extension.

Frustrated by an assignment to make a self portrait with pastels, I threw down my oil sticks, picked up a needle and thread, and changed the way I make art forever.

Wool crewel embroidery on silk satin. Essentially a self portrait, this piece was my response to a professor's instruction to demonstrate color theory.

SOLD - PERMANENT COLLECTION, AUSTIN COMMUNITY COLLEGE

Wool crewel embroidery on silk satin. Essentially a self portrait, this piece was my response to a professor's instruction to demonstrate color theory.

SOLD - PERMANENT COLLECTION, AUSTIN COMMUNITY COLLEGE

The Back and some detail shots from my homage to Klimt's "Der Kuss."

A feminist updating of Klimt's Der Kuss (1908), my entry celebrates romantic love with a girl powered smooch.
The background of the piece is painted with acrylic paint, while the flowered cliff edge is hand stitched with crewel wool. The faces and flesh were hand wrought with single strand crewel silk floss, and the layered metallic fiber was entirely couched with single strand silk floss.
In the original work, the man dominates his mate with a brutish embrace as he pushes her to an inescapable edge. The foliage wrapping her ankles entraps her, and, upon close inspection, her expression hardly conveys the joyful anticipation the painting initially suggests.
In my update, I asked myself to consider how Klimt would have worked if gold leaf had not been invented. My version finds the figures together, ready to fall (in united love) at the edge of Klimt's cliff. Both are embraced (in naked, vulnerable intimacy), beneath a shared golden wrapping, as tendrils of vines bind each to the other in a mutual tender trap.
In this update, the figures are purposely androgynous, celebrating the universal joy of romantic love for anyone (of any orientation) lucky enough to find a partner for life.

SOLD

A complex tangle of pure white ribbon stiffened with coats of gesso and acrylic and held in place with carefully sewn glass beads. This piece was completed in between binge watching of the terrifically addictive "Breaking Bad," and thus became my love letter to Walter White, Vince Gilligan, and to my own private Heisenberg, who watched with me and dedicatedly supports my work.

Found objects, glass. An embellished pincushion because, well, why not an embellished pincushion? Even the most humble objects can and should be elevated by the hand of an artist.

SOLD

Found objects, glass. An embellished pincushion because, well, why not an embellished pincushion? Even the most humble objects can and should be elevated by the hand of an artist.

SOLD

Acrylic on a velvet ground, this piece was inspired by the set of my son's production of Chekhov's "Uncle Vanya."

Acrylic on a velvet ground, this wintery scene was inspired by the set of my son's production of Chekhov's "Uncle Vanya," and made into a stocking for his beautiful girlfriend. Initially a painting which I refashioned into a Christmas stocking, this piece has been embellished with glass beads and silvery trim. The footsteps stomping through the snow to spell out the name Amanda are (I imagined) Duncan's.