"Field of Crosses”/Doublecross

Exhibited at “Sacred Threads 2005”: category: Inspiration

Diptych size: 26.5" x 15.5"

Materials and techniques: white Dupioni silk and black velvet. Machine reverse appliqué and machine quilting.

This two-piece quilt is a meditation on the interplay between life and death, light and darkness. I began working on it during the Iraq conflict and the tsunami disaster, completing it on the 60th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz. The field of crosses represents the markers on mass graves—the aftermath of wars, natural catastrophes, genocides. The crosses seem to glide off into eternity.

This quilt is also known as “Doublecross.” It is a play on “field and ground,” positive and negative, foreground and background. Some of the crosses appear to be crosses—but are actually formed by the spaces between neighboring crosses: they are formed by absence, rather than presence. The diptych represents the black immensity of night and the pure white light that illumines darkness. Together, they remind me that the velvet darkness and the radiant light are both necessary, not only in the quilt but also in life.

Exhibited at “Sacred Threads 2005”; category, Inspiration.

Juried into the 2007 Art Center at Fuller Lodge (Los Alamos) show, "Bold Expressions in Clay, Fiber & Wood."