The quilting for economic gain
Turnabout
Artist Statement
These medium format mixed media paintings challenge the false mythologies of American cultural life including: the consumerist messaging of postwar American advertising, jingoist news media coverage and simplistic television narratives.
The shift to a postwar economy meant the frugality of quiltmaking was no longer valued.
U.S. factories with elevated production capacities geared for wartime now needed a market for home goods.
The economy could flourish only if quiltmakers and other homemakers could be convinced to become consumers instead.
Advertising, social pressure, and patriotic zeal compelled women to trade their role as producers for that of shoppers in support of capitalism following WWII. The state would like to help with your life choices.
My work is impious, irreverent, dark and delicious. It’s grim out there; I make fun.