In The Metropolitan Museum of Art is a Yupik parka by Edna Oktokiyuk that makes me pause. Strips of dried seal intestine are delicately stitched together to protect a hunter from the wind and snow. Beaks and feathers from the native auklet adorn the garment, and polar bear fur trims the hem and cuffs. Each animals’ life and contribution is honored as a gift. In its presence, one feels the outpouring of care with which it was constructed. It reminds me that objects are containers for meaning. I approach my work with this perspective in mind; offering care and attention to materials and to those around me. I am curious about how objects hold stories, care, and life.
My background is in weaving, and I use this process to relate to material physically and metaphorically. The magic of weaving is in the potential for one principle to create infinite variations. Meaning emerges in the time and proximity that we dedicate to material; the ways we run each thread through our hands until a cloth emerges. We weave to warm, to protect, to love, to be human. Weaving ties things together, and gives me a lens to integrate varied mediums. I work with cloth, basketry, woodworking, and metalworking processes in my practice. I am curious about the rigidity of the soft, and the softness of the hard; the way wood moves and bends, the way metal acquiesces to our touch if we coax it just the right way, and the way cloth holds so much together.