Educated by contemporary American society to prioritize and value ideas that can be expressed verbally, those that cannot be named or communicated through words can be easily suppressed. However, we experience the world through our bodies and therefore our knowledge is not exclusively verbal or mental. Our haptic knowledge, that which is known through the physical, is stored in our hand and bodies. Visual and tactile senses are connected; when we look at an object, we know what it will feel like because we recall feeling similar objects in the past. The combination of visual and tactile senses engages our memory. Patterns are often viewed on clothing or interior wallpapers and upholstery. Therefore they have an inherent associations with the body and how one relates to space. Patterns can help define spaces, or in the case of camouflage can they can distort or transform objects and spaces.
In my work, I use pattern and haptic visuality to engage with my memories of growing up in Nebraska and learning traditional domestic crafts from my mother, grandmother, and great grandmother. I am interested in matrilineal traditions, and forms of making that are often dismissed or devalued.