Study for Self-Portrait, Year 2:

Beneath the Surface (2005/6)

Commercial cottons

11 x 14

 

This was my first design for the idea that some years later developed into the large, two-sided lavender/black-white quilt with the same name. In this early study, the lavender strip represents the calm appearance that I present to the world, while underneath is the blackness of grief, lanced from time to time by the anguish that pierces without warning. The maquette is pinned to the bulletin board in my studio, and many people who see it ask about it. I thought I would eventually make this in a large-scale quilt as well, but find that I am satisfied leaving it as it is.