For centuries, quilts were objects that were designed, pieced, and quilted all by hand, causing the patterns to shift and misalign. Growing up I spent a lot of time examining the quilts in our house that had been passed down by family or gifted by friends. My favorite part was always the little mistakes that you can often only pick out after having spent some time with them. They were proof to me that this quilt was made by a person, and even if I didn’t know them, I could still see their mark on the world. This series is my way of embracing and celebrating that legacy and the hand of the maker.

When I was trying to figure out how to present these pieces, my good friend Julian had the idea of making frames that followed the wonky shapes of my paintings. As a professional carpenter, he spends his days making things that are equal, square, and perfect. For him, the appeal of this project was in the challenge of trying something new, with new skills, new tools, and a unique outcome. We worked together to come up with shapes that would be challenging for him to create, and interesting for me to paint. The result is better than I could have hoped for, and pushed both Julian and I to think in new ways and develop new techniques.