BFA Thesis

Inspired by the loss of my grandfather to a lifetime of smoking cigarettes, I am exploring the past, present, and future of the tobacco plant through a triptych of sequential quilts.  Through the lithographic printing of historical documents and maps on tobacco cloth, the first quilt will represent the plant’s indigenous and colonial history, setting the stage for its role in our lives today.  Through the cyanotype of data materializations and personal family images, the second quilt will analyze impact on health and patterns of addiction while including personal anecdotes, to represent the physical and emotional harm currently caused by production and use of the plant. Through the disassembly and reconstruction of my grandfather’s shirts, the final quilt will represent my hope for the future of tobacco’s role in our lives through multicultural ethical means of production and use.  Each will be quilted with gold thread in significant patterns or locations, acting as the throughline of the story.  My installation tells the story of the tobacco plant and its personal connections to the my life through the use of textiles and processes significant to the scholarly or personal history of tobacco.