Bulletproof, 2017/8

Linen, Cotton 109 x 155 cm

This is a photo of my back + the photo of the impact of a bullit. The back is the place of vulnerability. People I know who needed to hide during the dictatorship period in my country of origin, Argentina, never seats with the back to the door. You can not see the peril that way. I developed a problem in my bone narrow after a very stressful period.It is a meaningful place, literally and metaphorically, the place were the world impact you

63 Suffragists of Color, 2020

Cotton fabric, pleated fabric tessellation, cotton blend thread, custom printed cotton fabric, cowerie shells, cloth braid. 38 1/2 X 49 1/2

63 Suffragist of Color shares including Native American, Latin Americans, Asians and others. The ratification of the 19th Amendment to the Constitution in 1920 allowed white women in the US to vote, but it was not until the Voting Rights Act of 1965 that blacks were ensured their voting rights. Suffragist are at work today to ensure that all Americans can use their right to vote. The foundation is mainly cotton fabic pleated in a tessellated pattern with machine stitching, applique and quilting. The applique of the suffragettes covers the orderly geometric pleated and stitched pattern and is symbolic of unseen paths these women travelled. The lower portion of the quilt contains a listing of the featured 63 suffragist, and a few select quotes. On the quilts reverse side is a Suffragists of Color Timeline dating from 1792 to today. Fabric of the 63 Suffragists of Color is available in my surface design shop at https://www.spoonflower.com/profiles/quilterscomfort_. https://quilterscomfort.com

The Collective Mending Sessions, 2018

Social Practice - Mending & hand stitching on abandoned quilts. Quilt: 75" w x 98" h

The Collective Mending Sessions is a social practice work centered around collaboratively mending abandoned quilts. Started in 2018, these workshops are led by artist Catherine Reinhart and teach basic textile care and mending. Discussion and community building is developed around the question of, "How do you MEND your community?"

1 in 3 in USA, 2020

Recycled tablecloth, cotton, found fabric, thread, batting 51 x 38.5 inches

One in three Black males will go to prison in their lifetime. The 13th Amendment abolished slavery in 1865 but a loophole clause allowed for enslavement if convicted of a crime. The result is staggering racial disparities in American legislative and criminal justice systems. The U.S. has 4% of the global population but has 25% of global prison population – the most of any nation with 2.2 million people incarcerated and an additional 4.5 million people on probation or parole. Black Americans make up 13% of general population but 34% under the control of the criminal justice system. I designed a simple weave pattern to best illustrate Black lives in mass incarceration, as well, to conjure images of abstracted African masks – a symbol of ancestral spirits.

Changed by Climate, 2016

Wool and silk felted by artist, hand embroidered, pewter tray, cord 23x12

Too hot, too cold, too distracted by the effects of a changing climate

Until Justice rolls down like waters…#10, 2017

Cotton fabric, fiber reactive dye 52" H x 44" W

Missing Pieces, 2021

paper, wood Height: 28” Width: 24” variable

Missing Pieces is the beginning of a series about loss. A double sided puzzle format speaks to both the complexities as well as the inter-relatedness of dealing with problems that are really two sides of the same issue. This first piece is a commentary on our national history of social injustice and has the Constitution on one side and the names of Black victims of police violence on the other. It can be laid out in a variety of ways but always with missing pieces.

Lamentations for Ermenegilda and Rebecca, 2020

Vintage lace and silk thread hand-dyed with cochineal, cast plaster 126x180x2"

Linsey-Woolsey, 1735, 2021

Linen Cord and Highland Wool 24" x 40"

Linsey-woolsey is a coarse fabric, most common in the United States during the Colonial era and required for slave clothing under the SC Negro Act of 1735. In addition, it was used among the lower classes in England for a few hundred years. Linsey-woolsey was often made with a linen warp and a woolen weft - the technique used on this piece.

Passage West, 2018

Immersion dyed cotton organdy, digitally printed silk organza 10' H x 50" W

Future Truth and Present Circumstance, 2017

glass beads, raw silk, thread, plater 7" x 20" x 23"

Emily Sullivan Smith’s work explores the push and pull between the natural world and human behavior. Implicit in the pieces is a balance, harmony and disharmony between the self-sustaining actions found in both the natural and human worlds. How human convenience, privilege and personal choice might push against the benevolent orders of nature. A quote from poet Mary Oliver conjures the sentiment of the work and the relationship of the viewer to it. Oliver writes in her essay, Upstream, “Attention is the beginning of devotion”. Sullivan Smith employs cultural and material knowledge from viewers to realize her ideas. Her work contains undertones of environmental activism, inviting viewers to infer their own relationship to the topics at hand. Individual histories, experiences and beliefs play a critical role in unraveling and tying together meaning. She often uses labor as a material, inviting audiences to take her labor into account as a surrogate for the labors of nature. Several of her pieces have taken years to complete or the assistance of other artists working in community. These efforts are intended to invoke the human understanding of work and time, calling attention to the fragility of the natural world and the dissonance between human and environmental timelines. In her practice, Sullivan Smith pulls from the global effects of humans on the natural world and also from her own small piece of land in suburban Ohio, where she fosters organic gardens, wild flower patches and her own awareness of the effects of her lifestyle on an individual scale. Travel and experiences in a variety of climates and micro environments from Iceland, the Pacific Northwest and the Eastern Sea Board to the mono-culture of her local grocery store all shape and effect her practice. Walking, deep looking and awareness of the effect of her senses on her psyche are the guiding forces behind her work.

Right Matters, 2020

Cotton fabrics 45x45

Indigo Composition No. 13, 2020

Cotton, fabric paint, flour resist dyed fabric 78" x 85"

In 2014 I became interested in the cloth created by a Chinese ethnic minority who over dye their indigo cotton with mixtures of ox or pig blood and peppers. They cover one side of the fabric with egg whites and then beat the cloth with mallets. This results in a piece of fabric that is very shiny on one side and matte on the reverse. I have spent the last five years working with this fabric. In many ways the later pieces in this series are self-portraits of a sort. To most people I seem very strong and self sufficient. Only upon closer inspection can you see the detail, complexity, and fragility of my emotional base. Like this fabric, for the careful observer there is a lot to discover.

it will get better, 2018

vintage skirt, felt, thread on hanger with clothes pins. 46"x28"x1"

The Content Has Already Been Inscribed, 2016

Handmade felt, paper, welded steel 38" x 21" x 27"