Teen romance
Starting in 2024, I continue to make and develop a series of quilted worked, based on letters in a big red suitcase. This vintage suitcase I have been lugging around since I left home. I always knew it kept a variety of letters and tokens from my childhood and teen years, and until a case of ant invasion, the case had been stacked in the various sheds of homes Ive lived in. While being forced to take everything out, and rid the pile of papers of ants, I sat and looked at the person I was, and the people I interacted with. From this rather unintended pile I found old love letters, from boyfriends, best friends and family. They are both an amusing snapshot of the 90s teen, and a vivid reminder of the person I was. 15 year old me was selfish and bold, and yet the letters are very relatable now, and give an incite of shifting priorities, possession of boys, mothers words of wisdom and the boredom of high school days. I am slowly pulling out words and sentences from these letters and in the form of handstitching, a slow and thoughtful process, carefully remembering and examining the words and feeling shared with my young self.
