To commemorate the opening of the new NCSSM Morganton campus, and to tell the NCSSM story of stem education through bringing diverse young minds to a residential environment, I collected hundreds of pictures of students, alumni, faculty, and staff to feed into an AI algorithm on the Bridges II Supercomputer in Pittsburgh, to learn what the NCSSM community looked like.

This algorithm was then asked to produce new faces that don’t exist. These were then collaged, cut out of local Durham fabrics 🧵 from the Scrap Exchange, quilted using the Durham Road system on a long arm at Cary Quilting Co, and finished with Vinyl overlays and a border!

Just as American society and culture are pieced together from multiple origins into one singular, intricate reality (E Pluribus Unum), this piece visually demonstrates how these origins blend together through specific shapes, colors, and patterns. The intent to disengage from specific identities within the piece is to promote an image of a united identity while also being cognizant of the spectrum of identities that are not necessarily best represented by known stereotypes or imagery. Overall, the non-conventional use of quilted appliqué reveals my visual language communicating the narratives of the multiple races, ethnicities, genders, and religious ideologies—capturing through time the American cultural and social “fabric.” 

*** This piece is a National title holder with the Scholastic Arts and Writing Competition and is permanently installed at the NCSSM Department of Humanities in Durham, NC ***

After "Portrait of an American", this piece was an exercise in developing my own quilted applique portraiture style. Inspired by the magic of the flowers scene from Alice in Wonderland, I sought to recreate that magic and illusion through color, pattern, thread choice, and the three-dimensional result of quilting. Experiments with metallic threads, leaf texture details, and shading/highlights with both fabric and thread seek to further the idea of "painting with fabric", convincing the viewer of one cohesive image despite many parts. These exact same techniques and learned practices were implemented in the subsequent portfolio, "A Walk in Their Shoes".

Built from scratch, this jacket was an exploration in apparel and garment construction. The interior is lined with a hand-quilted material and the exterior is polyester.

Photography/Model Credit: Marcos Aspiazu/Madeline Brown

Completed during NCSSM's AR4100 Drawing, this final project was an exercise in hyperrealistic drawing. Working from life, this piece was created on 9"x11" card stock using graphite and charcoal