For the last several years I’ve been working on the integration of tangible yet flexible materials such as paper, textile and thread, with writing and words. I’ve been after a distinctive form through which to represent writing perceived as a palpable network of linear and poetic elements in relation to the reticulated underpinnings of matter. These pursuits include experimentation with handmade paper and for Dilecto Meo, I produced a set of papers from naturally dyed indigo cotton rag. This assemblage, Il mio cuore soffre perché non ho la grazia di sentirti, inspired by the writings of Lucrezia Marinella includes two sculptural forms of this material.

​

          A prolific, published writer of 16th-17th century Venice, Italy, Lucrezia Marinella achieved recognition during her own lifetime for her devotional literature and her philosophical critiques. Her acclaimed review of gender politics, The Nobility and Excellence of Women and the Defects and Vices of Men, demonstrates an unconventional use of irony and contradiction. The following citation from her collection Rime Sacre (Sacred Verses), exemplifies her unorthodox view of relationship with the divine.​​​

​

Taci, e tacendo parli e le paro-le. Non odo ond’ io mi sfaccio

à i muti suoni:Se taci, perche à me par che ragioni?

Se parli, che non t’odo ò divin sole? Parli, e non taci onde

’l mio cor si dole; Perche gratia d’udirti à me non doni.

​

You are silent, and in silence you speak / I don’t hear the words so I become
undone at the silence: If you are silent, why does it seem to me that you reason?
If you speak, why don’t I hear you, o divine sun? Speak, and be not silent
so that my heart suffers, because you do not give me the grace to hear you.​