Is there an artwork that has been a touchstone for your practice?
I love the Mompoxean Joan Miró tapestry! It’s a massive textile artwork that hangs in the Banco de la República in Bogotá, Colombia. I was stunned by its texture, size, vibrant palette, and the presence of the artist’s hand. This was in the mid 90s when I was a student, and it really confirmed my path in textile art. I loved that Miró made the drawing, selected the materials and color palette, and worked with expert weavers to fabricate the tapestry. It reinforced the value of working with collaborators and how impactful it can be to make work at a monumental scale with tactile surfaces and materials.

Have you made any work that you’re proud to keep for yourself?
I have one small handwoven, double-sided piece that I made on my home loom in 2020 during the lockdown. It’s the only thing I’ve woven on that loom and the last handweaving I’ve made. It’s red and black and white stripes in different structures, and I put it in a frame and kept it in my RISD studio. Now it’s at the RISD Museum as an example of my weaving practice in the new textile room at the RISD Museum!

What place in NYC brings up the best or most vivid memories of this city?
The IFC theater in the Village, where I’ve seen a lot of important films and shared time there with friends and loved ones. That film on the big directed by folks like Pedro Almodóvar, Lisa Cholodenko and Gregg Araki left their mark on me over decades.

Do you have any rituals for your practice that anchor you to your process and preparing to work?
Going to my studio like a full time job. Listening to music. Must have music in the studio. Drawing is a fundamental part of my studio process and continues to be something I come back to that grounds me.

What was the last great art exhibition you saw?
Arrest Occupation by Mía Hebib at the Hole. This show set the tone for me for 2024, in that it was dazzling, fun, confident, challenging. The form making was impressive and the scale and finish elevated the work. The only problem with the show was the weak curatorial framing and didactic content. It wasn’t an occupation or arrest and that felt disingenuous as a curatorial device. It needed a better, more concise artist statement—one that wasn't clumsily co-opted from political action posthumously grafted.

What projects are you excited about right now?
May, I’m making a handwoven blanket collection in collaboration with Laila Textiles, a company co-founded by Aelfie Oudghiri and curated by Ruby Siegler. Sept 2024: Woven Histories will open at the National Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington, D.C. I’m honored to have one of my “Rug Paintings” included. Fall: I’m working big on my autobiographical book “Unspooling” that weaves writing, image, and documentation into a non-linear exploration of identity, family, and feminist formation that formed me.