allyn cantor

red canyon, pieced and assemble fabric, embroidery, collage, 18x18x1.5, water under the bridge, pieced and assembled fabric, cast resin with pigment inset, rivets, collage, 22x26x1.5, resonant order, pieced and assembled fabric, embroidery, oil paint, collage, 12x12x1.5, elusive boundaries, pieced and assembled fabric oil paint, collage, 14x14x1.5, translucent sky, pieced and assembled fabric, stretched and primed, oil paint, collage, 14x14x1.5, harmony, pieced and assembled fabric, embroidery, collage 18x18x1.5

i'm a map person--i love the lines, dots, marks, shapes, colors, symbols, everything--i'm fascinated with the language, the 'reading' of a place. these simple fabric assemblages by allyn cantor create a mapped language of their own...

I am attracted to the rough edges of fabric remnants and how tactile material responds to liquid creating movement and gesture. The aspect of piecing reclaimed materials together reminds me of Depression era quilts where it was a necessary act, and had an element of survival. I feel that need now in our society’s standards of excess. Reclaimed fabrics also contain traces of life that has been lived, so their history feels warmly familiar, like discovering an anonymous person or lost occasion.