GATHERING & EASING

“The summer of 2020 will be forever known as a time when America came close to unraveling. Each month becomes worse than the last. Many of us stay positive by making, because it is all we can hold onto. It’s productive and feels like life. The weaving together of all of us at this time is important so that even when a strand breaks, we are strong enough to help fasten us together and get through these hard times.

GATHERING AND EASING, from the process of bringing together different fabrics of different lengths, adjusting the puckers in the fabric, which when you “ease” will disappear. The technique reminded me of the difficulty of connection during this moment with the ongoing restriction of social gathering and unease of interaction.”

– Gina Occhiogrosso

The hallowed and often masculinized tradition of painting is subverted in her work through a repeated process of cutting and then sewing painted surfaces together to develop new forms, dynamic connections, and illusions of depth. 

Where the stitched edges join, there is a seam, which has both linear and sculptural qualities. The seam acts as a geometric disrupter of curvy ellipses and other organic forms that are carefully rendered and then carved up with alternating precision and chance. The ghost of those cut edges has its own presence. Where the fabric overlaps in the reverse of the painting, a slightly more opaque path is traced, issuing a new element whose origin is not at first apparent.