I’ve been exploring the concept of ego in my work. Buddhism says that we are simply constructs of various  ideas and conditioning strung together to make up a personality or sense of ourselves. These sewn collages are my way of taking a look at that perspective.

I gather materials, letting the sense of a piece emerge through the random meeting of papers, cloth, colors and shapes. These materials become the parts of the constructs. Using a sewing machine and some glue, I’m the builder. Being the builder keeps me asking, “what am I?”. The use of hands in the pieces say a lot to me of that builder.

The materials used are painted parchment paper, cotton rag, mixed media and markers, painted linen, netting, gel plate mono printed and spray painted collage papers. They are all mounted by glue or stitches to either painted linen or cotton rag printmaking paper.