SCAB

or The long and wrenching history of everyday cotton is enough to teach you sadness all over again.

Made from medical cotton, recycled textiles, beeswax, ash, epoxy resin, duct tape, concrete, plaster, oil, acrylic, damar uv archival spray on stretched, repaired canvas.

I wanted to make a piece that explored the complex history of cotton--the ubiquitous and 'silent' material underpinning so much of art history, and culture in general. I began by slicing a huge gash in the back of the canvas, which I slowly mended and patched with resins, creating a scab. Bloody red beeswax roils over ribs of romanesque concrete made with wood ash, with lichen tendrils made from recycled shop towels pulled from the studio trash. Slavery, oppression and domination are a part of the story of cotton: but so too are resistance, innovation and indigenous wisdom. A scab isn't a swear word or a nasty thing, but a little red gem. Underneath, magic's happening--regeneration.

36" x 36"
Available - $3500