“As the aged human face is my most significant subject matter, my work focuses on the universal issues of aging and mortality -and on seeing these transitions as a natural part of life, worthy of reflection.
My medium is thread-on-layered-fabric. Whereas paints are applied to canvas, I apply thread to cloth. Using machine and scissors, I draw freely into color fields of found materials. The detailed patterning of printed fabric attracts me for its pointillist-like interaction that actively engages the eye for completion. With extensive machine stitching, I draw, adjoin and define form. Lines of thread become my brushstrokes, both blending and emphasizing contours.
We are wrapped in cloth from birth through death. With its tactile associations and reference to our sense of touch, woven materials are the perfect means with which to translate human elements that are layered, complex, non-verbal, and even invisible. Early Renaissance and Baroque tapestry, fresco painting and mosaic all inform my compositional preference for figures in an intimate depth of field. By illuminating the inevitable progressions of life, my work opens a dialogue that is essential to our times.”
…Deidre Scherer