Ilene Sunshine ... man and nature

My New Vein series is an extensive body of work comprised of dried, gessoed leaves and plastic bag fragments hand-stitched to paper. An on-going project since 2005 (currently a folio of 73 images), it is a 21st century riff on the herbarium— a collection of preserved plant specimens used for study and analysis. But I've corrupted the botanist's craft by seamlessly merging highlighted aspects of a leaf's structure with the ubiquitous graphic designs found on plastic bags. My renderings are a nod to the increasingly blurred distinction between natural and man-made, as well as a meditation on commerce's ever-presence. But in another regard, my sewing is a way of mending— not repairing holes, but making 'wholes' from such disparate parts. MORE images