top of page
Textile Towns
Shortly after moving to South Carolina in 1985, I became interested in the region's history. During that time outsourcing reduced the textile industry, of course. I have been making work that reflects the impact that this industry has had on individual people, as well as the culture of the state. The text has been derived from interviews. The pictures were either original images I made or family photographs I borrowed, and scanned artifacts I saved while traveling the Upper Piedmont.
Supervisor's log, archival pigment prints, 80x80"
detail Supervisor's Log. (The background to the artwork consists of 20 pages of a handwritten daily log. They reveal interesting details as to how the mill was run.The photographs are official headshots taken for file cabinet records during the 1950s and 1960s).
Sewing/Saving, Cibachrome prints, 80"x80"
The photographs for this work were made from 1950s negatives found at The Bleachery while I was working on 'Social Fabric', (refer to the website section prior to this one.)
Arcade Mill, Cibachrome prints on wood panel, 80"x80"
This piece of work consists of 'photograms', pictures made in the darkroom by placing objects directly onto color photo paper. The color was
created by using pieces of red cloth over the arrangement. This 'analog' method was later followed with other works by the digital method of
placing objects and pieces of cloth on a large-scale scanner.
Bea Norton, Cibachrome prints on wood panel, 80"x80"
Inspired by Bea Norton's obituary in the local newspaper, I interviewed her daughter, Jean Livingstone, in Spartanburg, during which she lent me these family photographs. Twenty years later, at Jean's funeral, I met her granddaughters, Kelly and Bridget Shropshire and made their portrait for my series 'Of Common Clay' (refer to that section of the website).
Christmas Party (version #1), Cibachrome prints on wood panel, 80"x80"
Cotton Mill Mathematics, archival pigment prints on wood panel, 80"x80"
detail Cotton Mill Mathematics, left picture: Carol Geddings, right picture: page from 1932 school textbook 'Cotton Mill Mathematics'. Background for artwork consists of 20 scanned pages of the textbook.
The Bleachery Christmas Party, archival pigment inks on cloth, 120"x120" (commissioned for the renovated Bleachery, now The Lowenstein. Printing generously contributed by Springs Creative)
detail The Bleachery Christmas Party. The Bleachery gave employees and their families an annual Christmas party, with bags of gifts for the youngsters and measures of cloth for the adults. The green pictures are from B+W negatives made in the 1940s and 50s.
Recent news, archival pigment prints on wood panel, 80"x80"
detail Recent News
Portrait by Tracy Kimball for The Herald, in front of UNITE, Cibachrome prints on wood panel, 80"x80", in one-person
exhibition at The Light Factory, Charlotte, NC.
Generations, archival pigment inks on cloth, 120"x120"
detail Generations, with family photographs borrowed from the Breakfield family. Printed cloth designs borrowed from the historic archives of Springs Creative.
bottom of page