"It started at a residency in Thailand where I spent five weeks sharing a mud house with a small black scorpion who haunted the drain of my bathroom sink, occupying my thoughts and affecting my every move. It became a curiosity how a being so small could wield so much power.
I processed my fear of these tiny, quick-moving arachnids through stitching together my first scorpion. A transitional object. A meditation. Once home its diminutive size lacked the impact of the experience inspiring my second version, and expanding the conversation beyond the personal.
Stinger looms larger than life. Its lacy exoskeleton crafted from found doilies suggests a history of needlework and domesticity that is left ambiguous. Dyed black and collaged into a mosaic of patterns, they now form the permeable body of a creature feared for its venomous sting and quick shift from repose to attack.
With a weaver’s sensitivity to the balance of tradition and innovation, I use needlework to give renewed power to craft traditions often glossed as feminine. Found objects – the everyday and invisible – are also put on a pedestal for scrutiny. The psychological is made physical in the way that one form materializes from another."
-Jodi Colella