Mindful Mapping by Mary Ann Nailos

 

Mindful Mapping was my submission to the ACN exhibition Unfolding. It was inspired by two workshops presented by Textileartist.org by Gwenn Hedley and Ali Ferguson. 

The process begins by making marks on a number of fabrics using a limited palette of black and one other color. I chose chartreuse because it is one of my favorite colors. I used all sorts of things to make the marks: foam brushes, the edges of a credit card, plastic straws, as well as paint drips and splatters.

Then I ripped the fabric up into smaller pieces and pinned them together, adding a few solid fabrics that I dyed. When I got the composition, I wanted I began to stitch everything together using a running stitch.

I added some trim and pops of color to represent different ideas that might pop into one’s head. Then I tied the pieces to each other using lots of different hand-stitching. The stitches repeat, define, interweave like thoughts in a mind map.

 The final cloth was fused to felt and some stitch in the ditch machine quilting was added mainly to hold everything to the felt.