Aunt Olive’s Quilt

Acrylic on Canvas, 70.2” x 81.5”, 2018-2023

This is a 1:1 painted recreation of a quilt made by my Great-Great Aunt Olive that she gifted to my mother when she was a child. This style of quilt is referred to as a “Crazy Quilt” as it doesn’t follow a uniform pattern and is often made from scraps. I started this painting in 2018 when I realized the quilt was rapidly deteriorating and my efforts to replace frayed swatches would ultimately result in a completely different quilt. As this painting took 5 years to complete, it often felt like a depiction of all the labor that goes into manufacturing a quilt. While painting, I thought about the hundreds of people that must have been involved in the design, manufacturing and selling of each fabric.