FODOMOSAICS

(5’6″ x 20’6″ x 1″ • 785,000 glass beads, aluminum rod)

This tapestry is made of 785,000 glass beads, each representing an hour of my grandmother’s life, rounded up a bit. Both of my grandparents lived almost 90 years. (Are you doing the math?)

Depicted as we were always seated in the kitchen, eating, playing Scrabble, or just looking out the window, this long-term meditation on a singe photo seeks to exist as a counterweight to our society’s freedom from choice as encouraged by easy and voluminous image acquisition.

While I believe the photoweaving would not have been possible without a computer, my core process is essentially ancient.

Created on a custom loom handbuilt from scrap wood, a rusted steel bed frame, two pipes, and hundreds of hair pins, I call it “technofolk” and a classic return to childhood.

The center (((space))) is filled with stars and constellations to symbolize shared memories and events, formed using a chance system, unpredictable and irregular yet united, as metaphor for human interdependency and elusive ideals of harmony.

For me, this weaving is a source of centeredness, restoration, and calm as I memorialize two people whom I never heard utter an unkind word about anyone.