Uniforms

I still have my first grade school uniform, a navy blue jumper that I wore to Notre Dame Academy across the street from San Francisco’s Mission Dolores in 1949. Uniform Series uses this jumper as a symbol for relating some of the stories of my life. The Uniform Series serves as both an expressive form and a method of processing these stories.

Dyeing and printing on cloth allows for nearly endless revisions through over- dyeing, discharging (removing color) and layering. The cloth used in Uniform Series started out as white cotton or sheer silks. Layering sheer silks over cotton introduces elements of mystery and ambiguity.

The re-examination of the past in order to arrive more fully in the present moment mirrors the repeated processes involved in creating the cloth. Working with “mistakes” can be a very rewarding part of the process. Uniform Series aims to reach an integrative balance between the visual elements of color, texture and composition with conceptual issues, life stories and emotions.