I have always loved language. Words have power and meaning can shift with the substitution of a single word in a sentence. It was my love of language that led me to explore Arabic in college. I enjoyed carefully making each loop in the foreign letters and relished the fact that a missing dot could change a word. I appreciated that the language followed a strict and well-organized root system. Love for that language led to a Middle Eastern Studies degree and later, a Master’s degree in Islam. As a result, Islamic art in the form of geometric tile work from the great Muslim palaces and mosques of the world became a source of inspiration for my quilts.
I soon felt the need, however, to make more of a statement with my work and I began a series called “Protest Quilts.” I use the soft form of fabric to grapple with the hard subjects of women’s inequality, xenophobia, racism and mass shootings. Each quilt begins with a statement of intent, sometimes overtly political and other times simply “Remember.” I then create the quilts, often incorporating words themselves in English or Arabic, imbuing meaning stitch by stitch.
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Books
Included in: Amish Quilts: The Adventure Continues: Featuring 21 Projects from Traditional to Modern, edited by Lynn Koolish, 2013
Illustrations for: Ravaging Rio and the Ghost in the Library, self-published, 2016.
Magazine Articles
“The Quilt Life as a Mother,” The Quilt Life, December 2013
“Ruth B. McDowell: A Quilter’s Career,” Quilter’s Newsletter, August/September 2011
“A Quilter’s Dictionary of Household Terms,” Quilter’s Newsletter, April/ May 2010
Solo Exhibitions
Memorial Quilts for Mass Shooting Victims, Francesa Anderson Fine Art, February 19 – June 27, 2020
Disarming: Memorial Quilts for Mass Shooting Victims, Arlington Center for the Arts, April 20 – September 4, 2019
Juried and Group Exhibitions
Created Equal, Arlington Center for the Arts, September 25 – November 6, 2020, “Fury” and “Last Words 1”
Featured Quilter, Rising Star Quilters Guild Show, Lexington, MA, October 4-5, 2019, “Victims Quilt Project”
World Quilt New England, Springfield, MA, August 15 – 17, 2019, “Bullet Holes” and “Stitch”
UNRAVEL: Fiber Art for Our Times, Arlington Center for the Arts, May 17 – July 8, 2019, “Welcome Mat”
Professional Affiliations
Arlington Center for the Arts
Studio Art Quilt Associates
Education
Master of Theological Studies – Islamic Studies, Harvard Divinity School
Bachelor of Arts – Middle Eastern Studies and Religious Studies, University of Virginia