Living Conditions: A 45-Year Portrait
Living Conditions:
A 45-year Portrait
2020
78" x 46"
Handwoven tapestry made from cotton yarn and upcycled cotton
t-shirts dyed with foraged cottonwood catkins, jute twine, and handmade cordage from foraged cottonwood bark on pine hanger.
This abstract self-portrait adopts the form of a cross-section of a cottonwood tree trunk and the scientific process of using dendrochronology to understand how changes in the environment affect a tree’s growth. Each series of rings represent a number of years in my life and the changes in color and texture between the rings symbolize the onset of different autoimmune diseases or other chronic illnesses throughout my life.