2023 Handwoven cotton and wool 6.5” x 5 yd

Installation on site at Penland School of Craft — in between the church and the cemetery — through interrogation of myths, patterns, and the earth.

Connecting with imagined and real weaver predecessors, I wove this overshot fabric while exploring what it means to live and work in the Southern Appalachian landscape in the 21st century - as a white person whose known European ancestors arrived in this region to be moonshiners and homesteaders. They spun yarn, wove fabric, were moonshiners and peddlers… all possibly romantic-sounding occupations. But what was it really like, and what impacts did their actions have on those around them, on the future of this land? What was their agency, who were they in contact with, and what were their communities like? The questions of how to become a better citizen of Southern Appalachia, how to do better for future generations, and how to conceive of the past when that myth can create futures… are all present with me in this work. Integrating these stories with the present day felt essential in some way… and possible through a ritual of moving the fabric in different locations in the outdoors, seeing it among the sacred space of a church and trees and winter grass and gravestones. Creating new patterns from an established threading draft felt like inserting myself into this ongoing history and myth.