For Shannon, 2017

For Shannon exists in a body of work through which artist and participants create and hold space for loss, hurt, and personal trauma. Participants share their story, and the story is recorded and subsequently translated into the language of the loom. Alphabetical letters are assigned a specific weave structure, much like binary code. After the story is translated, the code is woven into the physical work. The cloth is gifted to the participant at the end of the project. Shannon has generously shared her experience:

"It’s hard to describe how it felt the first time I saw For Shannon. This piece was made after spending hours with me in our kitchen, listening and recording me as I talked through recent painful memories...My story was transformed, the letters of each spoken word represented by weft or horizontal thread in the finished cloth. At the end of the exhibition, this piece that lived as a visual representation of the words I used to describe this experience, was gifted to me. I remember holding it to my face for the first time and feeling that, to my own surprise, it serves as a testament to this cleansing experience she shared with me and not the trauma she helped wash away."