I needed forty feet of cloth-covered cord for the Prairie Skin in order for each side to have two ten-foot cords. I suppose I thought that if one took the trouble to make a wrapping cloth for a human body, it ought not to come unwrapped. So, I needed 40 feet of bias strips of cloth to make the cords. I printed more fabric: I cut bias strips: All I had to do was sew the bias …

We must use what we have to invent what we desire. —Adrienne Rich alchemy: a seemingly magical process of transformation, creation or combination Prairie Skin, a work in progress, is a life-size, reversible, pieced and quilted construction which is large enough to wrap a body. Part of my Mapping Nebraska project, this piece is informed by my travels across the state and my memory of its prairies and grasslands. I remember my first art teacher’s teacher telling me …