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Peralta Junction was an amazing free carnival that lived in an abandoned lot in West Oakland for 2 months. I was invited to design the stage, and the Double Pony Stage came out of my wildest childhood fantasies and my obsessive need to make a public fabric installation that would resemble a child's stick pony toy. The stage was over 70ft tall and became a beacon for those looking for something safe, fun and free to do on the weekends. It was one of the more incredible projects I have ever been involved in and I could not have done it without the help and support of my dear friend and collaborator Melvin Occasio, and the entire team at One Hat One Hand.
The Afghan Waterfall was an idea that literally haunted me for months and months. I was obsessed with the idea of making a huge afghan installation that cascaded out the side of a building, simulating a type of waterfall. I spent 5 weeks driving all over the southwest, collecting as many afghans as I could get my hands on. After sewing hundreds of the afghans together, my artist friend Danny Garcia helped me install everything. We spent an entire day in the hot sun hanging these afghans. The installation stayed up for a total of 24 hours, but my brain was finally calm. I had built the vision I had been dreaming about for so many months and it turned out much more beautiful than I could have ever expected.
This series of Cosmic Costumes began as an experiment and developed into a wonderful set of masks and ponchos that simulated my paintings and made them feel as if they had come to life. A huge thank you to my lovely and talented friends Helena & Laurent Martin (http://www.helenaandlaurent.com),who helped to photograph everything in the beautiful Oakland Hills. And to Jeja Sjoblom and Phoenix Firestarter for modeling.
This was a fun costume I did for a video shoot in Japan. Fake hair, straws, wicker baskets and stuffing were all used to create a cuddly, super-sized hairy monster who moved and swayed beautifully. There was a tremendous amount of labor on this project and I had an amazing team of assistants working day and night helping me get all the pattern pieces done. A huge thank you to all who were involved.
I'm always trying to figure out ways to be an adult and a child at the same time. I wanted to make a super-sized pillow fort and was given a beautiful space to execute it. This fort was 40ft tall and made out of quilts that I had created from all my close friends old clothing. I wanted everything to feel extra personal, so I used every bit of the love and adoration I have for my community in this piece. I hung a couch upside down, lit everything from the inside, and made a soft, cuddly place for secret pacts and plans for the future.
I was invited to be a contributing artist on this project and asked to create over 4,000 sq ft of quilted shade, to be installed around the base of a huge pyramid. There was absolutely no way I could do all of this alone, so I put together an amazing group of talented female textile artists who had been involved in my life over the years, and we sewed all of it together. There were a total of 19 15x15 quilts, with 5 repeating designs. This project hit me like a ton of bricks and I was overwhelmed by how beautiful it came out, and how much love and respect all of us involved had for one another.
There are many quilts, fabric stuffies, large textile wall installations and other various textile pieces I have done over the years and this link is a dedicated sampling of just a few of them.