Kay Allen

Finding Home

2D Studio Art - Printmaking

I nearly lost my life to a flesh-eating bacterium before taking my first printmaking class. Life was put at a standstill. My body was so weak that it could barely walk, let alone carry a stone. When I entered the class, I worried I would become insecure in the fact I was unable to do the work I was inspired to produce, but little did I know, it would become my greatest comfort.

My current body of work primarily embodies experimental uses of monotype and relief prints in a structural way through the process of quilting. In this current body of work, I’ve created a series of quilts using monotype and relief printmaking techniques. In my family, quilting has long been a craft passed down from matron to matron - a tradition that unfortunately has passed me by. In creating this work I keep this family tradition alive while also confronting my past through my complex family lineage. I see quilts as their own entity; whether they are used to keep you warm through the night, make the perfect pillow fort, or an object of comfort to dry one‘s tears, they carry the history of people.

By creating this work I am telling my own stories - some of comfort, some of pain. I seek comfort from these quilts just as I did from the ones I had growing up. As I now sew the narrative of my own hardships into these, the process has become the most important aspect of each piece. I use inspiration of color and pattern from the quilts I saw growing up as well as short passages of text to breathe life and meaning into my quilts. I strive to leave the deckled edges to all my quilts in order to pay homage to the printmaking processes that have aided me in this newfound comfort after having survived a life-threatening illness.

My work is meant for me, and has served as a coping method for my past - a past which I cannot change. My work also keeps me hopeful for what lies ahead; it is my sincerest hope that as I create work for my own comfort, it may in turn comfort others as I become the matron of my own chosen family.