Illuminations

The Book of My Life, whose fragile pages begin accumulating from the hour of birth, include in my case, many devoted to treasured pictures of favorite animals. The embroidered images of animals in this exhibition could be viewed as reclaimed pages from this Book -- several of which are based on pages from other books -- the earnest illustrations of the rough collie for Alfred Payson Terhune's novels, a page of Phalene headstudies from the sketchbooks of Antoine Watteau, the very lovely and fragile pages of the Tamra Maew, ancient Thai Cat Treatises which appeared over the centuries in many different editions. I am drawn to make embroideries because they allow me to linger over these wholly enchanting personalities. Then there is the organic quality which the transformation from paper and print to thread and cloth bestows upon them. They become emblems of beauty and power; what few words of text they contain are passwords to their secret kingdoms.