Claudia Davila

My studio practice utilizes collage and prepared backgrounds to combine representational imagery and abstract form to create reconfigured narratives. My work focuses on lines, shapes, and movement as components that are stitched together through the use of thread. By creating implied spaces where all these elements can exist, I am able to highlight their connection within their separation. Each of my compositions emphasizes how very different materials can work together to develop ambiguous narratives and invented spaces.

When I was younger, I would sit with my grandma for hours while she tried to teach me how to sew. Little did I know that an activity I lacked patience for, at the time, would push me to further explore sewing and allow thread to become an important part of my art. Other artists such as Hollie Chastain and Hagar Vardimon have also inspired my choices in their use of thread and collage. All the materials I use in my work require different techniques, mostly based on control or patience, such as stacking thread, letting tea bags react on paper, poking holes before stitching, and strategically picking images and carefully cutting them out.

All the steps I take, although very different from each other, have eased the juxtaposition of elements to create new meanings and produce psychological spaces within my pieces, where all elements become interconnected. Sewing has allowed me to literally join things together as well as create metaphorical connections in my work.

These works incorporate drawing, collage, watercolor, tea stains, and sewing as a way to explore visual analogies of storytelling by creating invented worlds. The process of combining materials and the process of layering imagery is essential because that is how these elements are tied into a single narrative. My method of improvising, as well as my balance between control and chaos, has permitted me to let stories unfold themselves, where colors and shapes collide and encourage the viewers’ thought journey, unifying abstraction with reality.