Within a week of transferring from Corpus Christi State University to the University of Houston for my senior year of studio art in painting, a house fire ruined most of my wardrobe, not to mention nearly everything else I owned. As a way to reuse/recycle and hang onto the memories and experiences that went into wearing my clothing, I started framing and painting on the material that had been spared.

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These pieces started simply as pinch pots, a way for me to create once again after a dormant period during fertility treatments and my first pregnancy. My goal was just one a day, during nap time, until my bag of clay ran out. I was a newly nursing mother and it was all about the boob, watching what I ate or drank, sensing let down and nourishing my baby.

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The places I’ve lived, the time I was there, the people I was with and the things that we did set the stage for these pieces. And if they could talkTo start, I collected some old frames. One ornate frame, with much of its gilding missing along the side, had an old photo of a baby that has long since grown up (later I chose this one to frame the place where I was born). All of the frames have seen better days but that was their appeal. After cleaning and reinforcing, I began stretching canvas to the frames and priming the surfaces.

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