Christine Meuris is an artist living and working in Berkeley California. She holds a B.A. in Environmental Studies from the University of California, Santa Cruz.
She has participated in juried shows throughout the San Francisco Bay Area and the country and has been invited to participate in groups shows at the Berkeley Art Center, Berkeley Civic Center, The Mosser Hotel, Berkeley Wealth Management and the Roll Up Gallery. She has also had solo shows at Farley’s Café, Hello Stitch Quilting and Sewing Studio, and The Totally Rad Gallery.
She is an artist member of Mercury20 Gallery in Oakland, California and will have her first solo show there later this year.
I piece and sew paper as quilters piece fabric, making sewn paper collages that are unframed and loosely sculptural. I work with paper because I am primarily interested in the color, geometry and design as opposed to function.
In my most recent work I have been investigating the quilt as a symbol of personal and community history and a sacred part of our material culture in a time of climate change. The changes to our environment are happening at an unprecedented speed that previously evolved over a geologic time span. And when I look at quilting through the lens of geologic time, I could despair and be left only to wonder if cotton will leave traces in the earth’s strata. But paradoxically, when I think about human history from a geologic time scale, fear is somewhat offset by relief at being a small part of something greater than myself. So using the geometry and the construction techniques of piecing quilt tops, I create soft sculptures that communicate this transitory sense -- biodegradable cherished personal and cultural relics that will pass into time.
I use Japanese kozo and kitikata paper in this current work for its fragile and translucent appearance (though it is in fact very durable). I mount these papers onto bookbinding cloth which allows the final pieces to drape and reinforces the seams. I paint, block-print, draw and sew on the paper to create patterns and juxtapositions in the final work.
The artwork seen here is not for sale.
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