Beauty can be found in the most unexpected of places. For textile artist Merill Comeau, it’s found in the discarded. Old clothes, vintage linens, and discontinued designer prints form the basis of her work, with her work as much deconstructive as it is constructive.
“Much of the fabric I stitch resist, paint, and print,” she shared with Mass Cultural Council. “Then I cut, combine, layer, cut again, reassemble.” She explains that she often mixes contemporary imagery with old letters or pages from books that harken back to her childhood.
The end result is a Frankenstein experiment of sorts, a piece made of hundreds of pieces of fabric stitched together. As Comeau stitches the snippets together, each part becomes integral to the whole, akin to the sum of the many moments that make up a lifetime.
“The long process gives me plenty of time to do, edit and re-edit,” says Comeau. “The work is handled many, many times. I believe the final product embodies a level of human touch which is communicated to the viewer.” Enter her chaotic, beautiful, and layered universe.
