For my installation artwork for Montclair State University Art Gallery I created a large-scale indoor/outdoor installation. The waterfall I drive by everyday to work inspired me to create this work. I wonder if most people even notice it. I watch how it changes from winter to summer. I see the waterfall in all kinds of weather; in the winter it is covered with ice, in the spring the buds start to block my view of the water fall, by summer the leaves mask my view of the falls. I am mesmerized by the falls because of my childhood memories of group outings to the mountains of North Carolina. Waterfalls were a special event for me, not an everyday event like they are today. The work is entitled Blue Waterfall/White Waterfall.

Blue Waterfall is an outdoor installation that was made of eight panels of cotton cloth which vary in width from 30” to 11”, and are 150’ long. The cloth was bound up with natural objects I had collected in my journeys into the New Jersey landscape. Each natural object I used created a pattern on the cloth. These objects include leaves, stones, twigs, and other materials. The fabrics are dyed in indigo, an ancient natural blue dye. The Blue Waterfall cascaded into the sculpture garden weaving its way around the sculpture until it falls down the hill away from the gallery.

The White Waterfall was installed inside the gallery. It was eight panels of silk that come from the window into the gallery and then cascaded onto the floor in the gallery. The silk is 150’ long and created puddles of fabric on the floor. This work is dyed with mud, onionskins, tea, and madder (a red natural dye). I dyed the fabric in a manner to create wavy lines of dye on the fabric to create an idea of flowing water. I also used tea bags leftover from my ritual of drinking tea everyday. The tea dye gave the silk beautiful golden brown colors.