How to Fold a Fitted Sheet
at Lawndale Art Center,
Houston, Texas
March 17-April 29, 2006

"'How to Fold a Fitted Sheet' sounds like the topic of a circa-1953 home-ec lecture, but it's actually the title of Mariah Anne Johnson's exhibition at Lawndale Art Center. Johnson takes the former contents of countless linen closets and uses them to create sculpture. She neatly folds and layers sheets on shelves, interweaving them with the occasional crocheted doily. Their colors and patterns create multihued strata, and the stacks of folded edges read like paintings. Johnson rolls the sheets into roselike bundles and stacks them into a bouquet of folds and fans them out in a corner. The softly faded qualities of the fabric give a warmth and hominess to the pieces, and they make you wonder about the individual histories of their components. While "art with old sheets" doesn't exactly sound like a promising concept, Johnson really makes it work."
--Kelly Klaasmeyer, Houston Press, April 13

Live Oak Leaves

Thanks/Acknowledgements
Thanks to everyone at the Salvation Army Thrift Stores on Clybourn Avenue in Chicago and University Avenue in Champaign, especially Doreen.  Thanks to Michael and my parents for always being willing to help.  Thanks to Mae Lee and Pauline for sharing their stories with me.

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