St Clare, the Alb and I

This is the title of my work which has just been exhibited in the Assisi International Contemporary Art Exhibition

in the Galleria delle Logge in the main piazza in Assisi, Italy. The catalogue contained this image, with the accompanying text:

In the Crypt of the Basilica of St Clare lies a medieval relic, an exquisitely crafted liturgical garment called an alb, made by St Clare in the 13th century. Prior to my 2022 Assisi Residency, I spent a year creating a likeness of St Clare’s alb, using my own family’s heirloom textiles. I completed it at the Residency, and discovered that my labor intensive, contemplative hand-stitching of the alb had offered me a kind of transformation, a slow deepening of my own spiritual connection. During daily walks, I also took photographs of the countless stone patterns throughout Assisi. This work includes both my interpretation of the alb, and images of the patterns in the stone façade of the Basilica of St Clare. Often in my work, I explore contrasts and in this case, there is an interplay between the spiritual and the physical, the seen and the unseen.