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Since 2002, I have used an industrial zig-zag sewing machine to draw with thread on fabric. I call what I make "sewn drawings." Because I begin each drawing with a new assortment of commercially printed cloth fragments and another patterned fabric as a ground, my drawings can look very different, one from another. Over days and weeks, as I stitch into the scraps of fabric and the patterned ground, doing and re-doing, drawings take shape under my hands—but not entirely under my control—depicting people in circumstances I could never have imagined, but recognizably of this world. Characters come alive and tell me their names:  Space Witch, Big Rose, Little Big-Head, The Sea Fairy, Birdgirl, and others.
My Racing Heart (detail), fabric, thread, lace,
silk-screen-ink, acrylic paint, fusable adhesive
All images ©2002-2005 by China Marks, all rights reserved.