Starting in the 1930s, the federal government drew discrimination into our urban fabric through the policy of redlining. Across the country, redlining led to the removal of vibrant, interconnected neighborhoods, replaced by highways, parking lots, and sports fields. I have been exploring that history through a case study of St. Petersburg, Florida, in a series that grew from an art book I started in fall 2025.
Eclipsed
Created in spring 2026, this layered wall-hung installation incorporates machine quilting, hand applique, weaving, and hand-constructed framing of laser cut Baltic birch. It provides a close look at the Gas Plant neighborhood of St. Petersburg, where a thriving community was wiped away, stood vacant for years, and was eventually replaced by I-175 and Tropicana Field. This neighborhood is explored in an interactive mapping experience that I created in conjunction with my art book Required Reading, below.
Required Reading
I created an art book, Required Reading I, for the Tampa Bay Surface Design Guild show, Tipping Point, held at the Unitarian Universalists of Clearwater Octagon Gallery in 2025. I reworked and rebound the piece for inclusion in the Florida CraftArt Members Show in January 2026. The book features a quilted cover and layered art quilts that facilitate a tactile exploration of St. Petersburg’s city streets and history. Its appendices consist of four small books – an accordion, a meandering fold, and two lotus fold. Three contain excerpts from key sources I relied on for the project and the last contains acknowledgments.
Redlining Interactive StoryMap
An interactive experience of the work includes a gallery of images of the art book, the full text, interactive maps and links to multimedia content to allow further exploration.
Continued Explorations
I’ve continued playing with the materials from this work:
I am currently working on a series of small art quilts including one (6″ x 8″) that I submitted to the 2026 SAQA spotlight auction.
This embellished t-shirt I created for the Tipping Point reception was constructed using the Scout Tee pattern from Grainline Studio in linen from EWE in Charlottesville, Virginia.