Artist Statement:
I wanted to teach students about my wood quilts and to show how quilts can be created from any material. I thought about what materials might resonate with a child, and the pencil came to mind. The simple, humble pencil is a symbol of elementary school life. Together with students, the PTO, and our community, we collected and saved hundreds of pencils—both used and new—for this project. These "pencil quilts" are community art pieces, created during my artist residencies at Sprague Street Elementary School in Wellesley, Massachusetts (2017), Cottage Street School in Sharon, Massachusetts (2018), and the Senior Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (2019). Each quilt embodies the spirit of collaboration, with materials donated and collected by the participants themselves.