Looking Back, Looking Forward

Artists

• Kristen Miller

Statement

Over the past few years, I’ve been waking each morning to watch the light from the sky change color through the large windows in our sleeping porch. The day to day repetition of that familiar view has been an unexpected counter to the uncertainty and the loss experienced during the pandemic. Using some favorite worn linens that I had at home, I stitched beads into the fabrics as a way of recording color, events, and time. Stitching and beading are ways of drawing and making forms that reflect my interest in the mystery of time and our efforts to measure and define it.

I began looking at the sky more closely during a residency in the Arctic Circle region of Finland in 2019. Missing the opportunity to travel during lockdown, I revisited that place in my memory. I saw the particular quality of light against the landscape of snow and took walks around the curve of the lakes in Kemijärvi where I was staying. I got to know people in the community, finding linens at a nearby thrift shop and carrying some of those fabrics with me on walks. I’ve stitched into those fabrics now to remember those experiences while thinking about the fragile condition of that environment with hope for a better future.