Drought

Drought is a large tablecloth printed with drawings I made of satellite feeds. Recent summers show vast swaths of North America covered with smoke from wildfires. Local flora show signs of extreme stress from many months without rain. There is often less than normal snowpack in the mountains, raising the spectre of yet greater water shortages.

Embroidering a tablecloth acknowledges the labour of women whose embroidered motifs often included flowers –decoration evoking domestic pleasure through colour and pattern. I have embroidered the local plants that bring me pleasure such as ferns, salal, spirea, maples, and cedars. What is normally green is brittle and desiccated. I have made them aesthetic yet abnormal in their colour: ashen beige or rusted leaves, and blackened stalks. In the smoke indicated on the tablecloth, I have embroidered small red triangles which are the cartographic symbol for fire. I have added triangles around the edge: decoration as an indication of trouble.