Debra Sue Zimmerman
Voorheesville, New York

26.25" wide x 24" high

Top: photos of graffiti ink-jet printed on fabric, machine stitched onto burlap.
Cotton batting and backed with commercial fabric. Binding is upholstery fabric with cording inside, with raw edge exposed as part of the binding technique.

For years I have been taking photographs of graffiti as I am fascinated by it's symbolism as well as it's accessibility to all who see it and the reactions people have to it. It is sometimes edgy, outsider type art and sometimes just plain vandalism and destructive in it's nature. It is always transient, not meant to last in the outdoor elements. This is precisely why I chose burlap as the fabric for the
quilt top.....it tends to disintegrate after some time. It is also "rough", just as these symbols are in their natural state. I enjoy the dissonance that graffiti often portrays, the clash of color, the lack of unity amongst competing "tags" and logos, and have carried that lack of unity into the quilt, separating the pieces of graffiti from one another (while at the same time attempting to balance the piece with the symbol which appears repeatedly in sequence in the quilt). The "Kitty likes fish" graffiti, taken from under the Brooklyn Bridge in the 1980's is one of my favorite pieces of graffiti. I enjoy knowing that I have kept it all these years after the original is surely long since faded away forever.