PORTALS

I started making portals while caring for my mother who had dementia. I liked the idea of the form of a portal as a kind of a distorting threshold to depict the experience of the past increasingly becoming my mother’s present, as the actual present was lost to her as soon as it happened.

EYE PORTALS

The exaggerated scale of the eye portals (primarily of me and my mother, but also of other family members) that dome and protrude from the wall might simply be about the often-disconcerting process of seeing or trying to see and understand ourselves and each other.
Self-Portrait After 2021
Self-Portrait After 2021
Self-Portrait After 2021, detail
Self-Portrait After 2021, detail
Self-Portrait, 2022
Self-Portrait, 2022
Self-Portrait, 2022, detail
Self-Portrait, 2022, detail
Self-Portrait, 2021
Self-Portrait, 2021
36″ od x 6″
Self-Portrait 2021, detail
Self-Portrait, 2021, detail
Betty 99
Betty 99
43″ od x 6″
Betty 99, detail
Betty 99, detail
Betty 99 1/2
Betty 99 1/2
43″ od x 6″
Betty 99 1/2, detail
Betty 99 1/2, detail
Betty 100
Betty 100
36″ od x 6″
Betty 100, detail
Betty 100, detail
Jerzy
Jerzy
26″ od x 6″
Jerzy, side view
Jerzy, view 2
Mary Cass
Mary Cass
36″ od x 7″
Mary Cass, side view
Mary Cass, view 2
Archie
Archie
24″ od x 6″
Archie, side view
Archie, view 2
Red Eye
Red Eye
44″ od x 6″
Red Eye, detail
Red Eye, detail

NATURE PORTALS

Since my mother’s death during COVID, I have remained engaged with the idea of the portal and am exploring representations of nature: land and sky.
Slippery Slide
Slippery Slide
31″ od
Slippery Slide, view 2
Slippery Slide, view 2
Slippery Slide, detail
Slippery Slide, view 3
Slippery Slide, detail
Slippery Slide, view 4
Spinning Sky
Spinning Sky
35″ od
Spinning Sky, view 2
Spinning Sky, view 2
Spinning Sky, detail
Spinning Sky, view 3
Spinning Sky, detail
Spinning Sky, view 4

PROCESS

Making tufts for portals
Making tufts for portals
Sewing in tufts, working with the piece face down
Sewing in tufts, working with the piece face down
Final step.  Turning the piece face up and trimming the surface
Final-step: Turning the piece face up and trimming the surface