Cloth is cloth, whether it is new or well worn, yet it seems that the clothing we wear carries memories of the life lived in that clothing. The shirt of a stranger becomes the raw material for a work of fabric art and imbues that work with mysteries and memories the artist can only imagine. For the past year I have been disassembling and over-dyeing men’s shirts from which I make my quilted work. In the process of taking the shirts apart, clues like a broken button, a stain or tear are evidence of a past life. I fashion my own story from the recycled cloth, but there are stories unknown to me that live within the work. The ordinary holds layers of meaning.