artist statement:
There is a secret room in the Baltimore Medical Examiner’s office that contains “The Nutshell Studies of Unexplained Death.”.
The Nutshells, dollhouse like dioramas of crimes, were created by a woman named Frances Glessner Lee.
Ahead of her time, and zealous in her passion for forensics (and as a woman, unable to become a detective at the time), Glessner Lee crafted small worlds of psychological complexity and forensic secrets. She wasn’t just darning tiny doll socks for detail, though, she was building scenarios that were so thorough and accurate that they became, and still are used, as teaching devices for law enforcement.
Although the Nutshell Studies have a purpose, they are also works of art. I was inspired by Lee’s meticulousness, her choice of color, her weaving and painting and positioning the dolls just so. It made sense to me that if I were to do renditions of the Studies, investigating the deeper sense of who the victims were, that I should do so in textile. I was compelled to work with needle felting wool. This is a technique which employs the “weaving” together of wool by punching it over and over again with a barbed needle.
I’ve been experimenting with felt since 2005, when I read that artist/photographer Dare Wright used it to make the face of her iconic “Edith the Lonely Doll”.
As I worked with needle and fiber, I connected with a skill so traditionally considered a woman’s. I also felt close to Frances, wondering what her own eyes saw as she used a needle to sew the same tiny curtains I regarded. What mysteries were unspoken in these tableaux?
I examined my photos of the crime scenes again and again, like an artist-detective- looking for the true meaning and significance of the scenario. I began to notice more and more physical clues and, under those, psychological, spiritual, and cultural implications. The victims gave their own voice to me and it was a pleasure to portray them in the crisp vibrancy of the wool. Though I did not employ paint, these are paintings and I am in love with the tactile nature of the material.
Not all of the felt paintings are based on the Nutshell Studies, but they are all based on unsolved mysteries—in history, in life, and in the nature of violence. In trying to make such things comprehensible, I seek to make them beautiful, hoping this imparts some vindication, and at the same time affording there is nothing more beautiful and compelling than an unsolveable mystery.
