Maria Britton

Lives and works in Carrboro, NC, USA

Artist statement

Sewn entirely from patterned bedsheets, the Draperies are low-relief abstractions that playfully combine the art-historical term for depicting draped fabric with its meaning as curtains. Rooted in material abstraction, the Draperies incorporate improvisational painting, gestural lines, and fabric manipulation. The surface of a bed is a place where one both experiences and escapes reality, a gateway between two realms; accordingly, I want the Draperies to occupy a space where dreaming and waking life overlap. Dated textile patterns act as windows for peering into specific times and places from the past. Like skin, fabric retains a physical memory of experiences; it wrinkles from habitual use and environmental conditions. Feminism informs and supports the process, materials, and techniques I choose to work with. Influenced by clothing construction, the human body, curtains, windows, flowers, and cycles in nature, my art is a material exploration of the immaterial.

Artwork