Impact

Ali Homan

Interview by L. Valena
April 2, 2024

Can you please start by describing the prompt that you responded to?

I received a picture of some photographs of hands that had been cut out and stacked over each other. The hands were slightly folded, and somehow they were able to stand. The piece itself was called Tidal Wave.

What were your first thoughts and feelings?

I loved it, because the shape of the hands is immediately evocative of a wave, and I had never thought about that before. When joining this project, I was worried that I wouldn't be able to respond to something or that it wouldn't spark much in me. I was just nervous. But it gave me so many ideas.

Where did you go from there?

I thought about a wave, and how hands make a wave. There are two things happening there, so I wanted to incorporate hands into the piece, the shape that they make from closed to open as though a wave is about to happen, like waving hello. I also wanted to bring some natural force into the piece, because a tidal wave is so impactful. So I painted some of the fabric with this photochromic paint that allows it to change color because of the sun.

Wait, what?

When it's inside, it's white, but when you take it outside it turns blue.

Whoa, that's crazy!

It's amazing. It turns blue in seconds when it's exposed to sunlight, and then it reverts in seconds.

That's really interesting.

Yeah. And the way that it kind of reflects back to that idea of how things come up and go away, and how time moves. I've never made art that changes based on where it is. It kind of makes it sculptural, but not really.

And temporal, right? Wow, there's a lot going on there.

Temporal is a great way to put it. The context is always changing. Being affected by sunshine is obviously very different from an ocean wave, but you have the experience of seeing this piece change before your eyes when it is exposed to sun. I also wanted to incorporate a diamond shape into the piece because things like tidal waves, earthquakes, and tornadoes don't necessarily happen in cycles, which is more circular. They swell, and go away. So there is one big diamond in the center of the piece, and then smaller diamonds at the bottom to show the passing of time, just like these hands open and close. There are larger metaphors about how we're all connected with nature, but that's the crux of it. Connecting a wave hello with a wave in the ocean.

Is connection with nature something you think about often?

Yes. I'm a massage therapist, and I talk with people about their bodies and their experiences on a very regular basis, and the same things come up over and over again. I do think that everybody has a very individual experience, but there is something about what we go through in life which is pretty universal. I do think we're all connected, I think that community connects us as humans, and that of course we are a part of everything. We're indiscernible from nature, but our modern lifestyle makes it weird.

We do a really good job tricking ourselves into believing that we're not a part of it anymore.

Yes! It's very convincing.

So hands are a big deal for you in your other work as well. You actually use your hands to heal people.

It's very special how much hands communicate, and how much meaning there is in receiving touch. There is something so beautiful about hands, and they're so hard to draw. I'm very fond of the wonky shapes they ended up being in my piece, which is good because they weren't going to get any better.

Isn't it amazing how fragile hands are, yet how strong? What a weird shape to have evolved as a species. It's weird, isn't it?

It's so weird. There are so many tiny bones in there, so many tiny tendons. It barely makes sense that we're alive. It's a miracle.

Can you talk more about how you made this piece?

I took pictures of my hands for reference, and then traced that with a type of fabric marker that goes away over time. Then I used a technique called free motion on my sewing machine to draw them – I was drawing with my sewing machine. It's so fun, but it's also chaos. So much sewing is about straight lines, and this is wild.

I think it's relevant to me that this piece is not not a quilt. The way this is pieced together is technically patchwork, stretched over a frame. I can't cuddle under it or something like that, so it's not a quilt. And it has this weird paint on it, so it's not like anyone would want to sleep with it. That's not what qualifies something as a quilt. There are so many ways to define a quilt – whatever. But this is patchwork, and this diamond shape is very quilty. I took extra care to make sure all the points match, and to do so relatively perfectly. That does take a quilter's skill. I'm mostly an improv quilter, so I'm not usually concerned with making sure my points match up, but they do here and that's cool.

How did you feel when you were making this piece?

Excited. It's an honor to be a part of this project because it's such a cool idea. I love the idea of a cascade of ideas, which is not unlike a wave. I was excited and invigorated. It's really fun to be pushed conceptually, so I really loved this process very much.

I should also say that I'm seven months pregnant, and I didn't sleep last night, so my brain is a little gooey. Since I'm pregnant, and this is my first rodeo, I also want to consider that as part of this experience. I can't hide it or anything, and it's not like people aren't asking about it. It's the biggest thing I'm experiencing right now, so it's what I want to be talking about. The creative process is inherent in me. I can't take a step away from me; it's just happening whether I want it to or not.

How does this piece relate to the rest of your work?

I do enjoy the process of stretching patchwork over frames, and I do a lot of that. Technically, it relates to a lot of my other work. I tend to use a lot of diamonds as a shape, it's a repeated motif. But in many ways, there isn't anything else like this in my work. There certainly isn't anything else that turns colors in the sun! I also haven't spent much time using my free motion technique. Something nice about this project is it was supposed to be quick.

Do you have any advice for another artist approaching this project for the first time?

Just dive into your sketchbook, and sit with it. The things I sketched out at first looked nothing like my final piece, but that's where I got all my ideas. I was very nervous about it, and worried that I wouldn't arrive at anything that made me happy, so if anybody is feeling nervous, that makes sense, and it's fine. Just keep going.

Call Number: O123VA | O125VA.hoImpa

Ali Homan is a quilter based in Durham, North Carolina. She learned how to sew from her mother and grandmothers at a young age, and has a deep reverence for quilts. When Ali isn't sewing she is working as a Massage Therapist, spending time with her loved ones, and readying herself to bring a baby into the world in June.