In the early 1990s I created 14 works reflecting a distinctly American art form the classic one patch patterned scrap quilt.
Quilting is a collage technique. Memories of home, family, community are preserved from worn bits and pieces gathered over time that relate personal stories as ideograms of memory and pattern holding meaning for the maker. 
How I originally employed the quilt technique is still very much the way I use it now, and though look and scale are quite superficially different, their original identity is intact.
 
 
 
 
  • Circle 2
    Circle 2
    "Circle II"...a quilt of woven scrap copper. 9 patches quilted with steel
  • carpet
    carpet
    carpet....three woven copper, scrap, patches each 36" x36" stacked and quilted with copper wire. Heat patination.
  • workshop-scrap-quilt
    workshop-scrap-quilt
    workshop-scrap-quilt made from the studio jetsam: well worn work gloves layered with latex, woven retread tire, ( black); embroidery backing (blue); copper scrap originally destine for recycling, woven and colored with heat; worn 1", sand paper belts, woven and colored with house paint from the local dump; scrap carpeting colored with additional dump house paint; barbed truss plates recovered at a demo site. 40 squares quilted together with steel wire 108"w x 84"h x3"d
  • Blue Shingle
    Blue Shingle
    Copper Quilt employing a riff on the giordes (rya) knot. Although I refer to this technique as a knot, it actually produces a pile on the surface of the metal. The quilt is created entirely of scrap copper recovered from a construction site.
  • Circle I
    Circle I
    One of my first quilts: woven copper and woven steel patinated with heat and chemicals. quilted together with steel and copper wire copper, steel 48" x48" x2"
  • pink quilt
    pink quilt
    pink quilt: copper roof material, truss plates, fabric, cardboard, and assorted lagan recovered from a building site. 46 patches quilted with copper wire and staples 48"x48"
  • Chicago
    Chicago
    Chicago: dumpster diving at the building site finding aluminum and stainless steel scrap. A very cold January day, I looked to my left and saw grey lake and sky merged. To my right was a silver, glass and steel building piercing the grey above. 12 aluminum and stainless steel patches, ground, woven and plaited. quilted with stainless steel strip 72" x 54" x 3"
  • Yellow Sentinels, following 9/11
    Yellow Sentinels, following 9/11
    Yellow Sentinels, following 9/11. Five panels of woven: scrap copper and steel, abrasive belts, tire retread, cardboard and table mats. All material was burned, treated with chemicals and some panels were coated with lime and clay.
  • Ushak Shingle
    Ushak Shingle
    Copper Quilt employing a riff on the giordes (rya) knot. Although I refer to this technique as a knot, it actually produces a pile on the surface of the metal. The quilt is created entirely of scrap copper recovered from a construction site.
  • News Quilt
    News Quilt
    Sleeping on grates under the cover of newspaper and cardboard. Collage of newspaper, plywood and ink all gather during walks around Baltimore.
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