I create my own fiberglass cloth by crocheting continuous strands of fiberglass into flat geometric shapes. These are formed and hardened with the application of polyester resin and the use of gravity. Small finished units are sewn together with the fiberglass into medium sized blocks which may assemble to form a larger unit or grid structure. This work engages math as a structural foundation by utilizing the grid, the numbers Pi and e, and Pascal's triangle.
To create a new work, I create a system. I chose a number sequence from the numbers pi or e, or a section from Pascal's triangle; define a specific method for articulating the digits; define colors and a sequence for the colors; and follow the plan to create the work. The larger works are straight forward interpretations of each digit, a visual articulation of mathematics as a way to generate a random visual pattern through form and color distribution. The qualities of the crocheted fiberglass material are organic yet the math that builds each work gives it structure and logic.
In MFA school, my focus was sculpture in which the conceptual agenda dealt with abstracting narratives of identity. Years of asking what does that actually mean, what does it look like, and what do I want to say about identity, where focused material exploration facilitated conceptual development and vice versa, back and forth, led me to my current practice of creating math generated work and crocheting fiberglass. The significance of the math and the crochet in terms of our own identity is this: Math is inseparable from nature, from us. Numbers represent the human search for knowledge, as the search for numbers went on for thousands of years. And, all cultures seem to have their own lace tradition. If identity is a hybrid of our heritage, then lace is, as tradition of time, labor, and creativity, one tiny point of intersection that connects us all.
What I realized recently is that the "abstracting narratives of identity" stuff had more to do with the work’s identity, not my own. That the deficiency I was trying to feed had more to do with finding a new language in clarifying the work's lineage by specifying the work's DNA, so that the minimal abstract expressions that I am compelled to create have specificity, have originality, and can go beyond the easy and the generic.
