Samplers

The use of embroidery samplers to memorialize the dead were common in early America. The detailed samplers used pictorial symbolism and text. They provided accounts of loss and its aftermath. Samplers listed obituary information and honorary sentiment. My samplers reference the ornate shapes and designs of Victorian coffin plates. They act as memorials to victims of HIV/AIDS. The samplers comment on cultural changes within the LGBTQIA+ community. The sentiment of my samplers is provocative, proclamatory, and referential. They attempt to reconcile gay culture’s place within a dominant, hostile society.