Buff came about as sort of a post-realization in a time where I was working with textiles in ways new to me but couldn't really place what I was doing. I found myself unable to part with various scraps of fabric left over from making clothes, knowing they were too good to let go, so I began piecing them together. I thought I was making drawings, paintings, maps, what have you -- and then I saw Matt McCormick's short film, The Subconscious Art of Graffiti Removal, and it all came together.
While I was collecting these bits of fabric I had also been collecting photographs of graffiti buffs across Portland. I was working in a leather factory at the time in the industrial zone alongside the river and would go on long walks, noticing and appreciating the buffs as funny little pieces in and of themselves. It turns out my fascination was not unique to me, and Matt's project put words to my fascination in a way that shifted the way I was looking at what I was making and how the things I make are interacting with the things they are surrounded by, as am I.
Buff (2017) was selected for the 6th Annual Juried Exhibition (February 2017) at the Littman and White Gallery, as seen above, and was displayed alongside documentation of the piece in the world, co-mingling with others.