Georgann DeMille

2016, 12” X 16” X 1.5” , Original Photo, Paint, Found Text

I volunteer with an organization that offers transitional housing and other services for homeless families. When I was younger my Mother was a tremendous help and I asked how I could repay her. She told me that helping someone else was payment to her. With that in mind I created this work combining print making, an original photo and text taken from prayer intercessions.

2014, 36” X 18” X 16”, Book Pages

When my Mom passed away she left me with an enormous number of books. These were her security blanket as dementia slowly eroded her mind so in her memory I used the pages of some of her books to fabricate this vintage style dress.

2014, 36” X 18” X 16”, Book Pages

I came across a vintage pattern and immediately thought of my sister and all the poufy dresses with matching shawls and shoes that she wore as a teenager. Those days of hidden handwritten diaries and little sisters to hunt for them.

2015, 30” X 20” X 10”, Magazine Pages

My husband had a never-ending subscription to National Geographic Magazine that was gifted by his parents.  When I finally got around to looking at them I realized that I would never visit these places but if I did what would I need? I read stories, cut the pages up and wove them into a backpack but is it functional or not?

2015, 45” X 20” X 16”, Magazine Pages, Wood, Webbing

My fascination with luggage in a Filson catalogue wedded with my pictorial journeys and produced this duffle bag. I cut and wove the paper to create this bag inspired by the one in the catalogue. On my imagined journeys, how would I keep it out of the sand or tropical earth but of course with a luggage rack. 

2017, 23” X 15” X 15”, Book Pages

While cleaning one day I found the book Little Women. Inside were the doodlings of my then teenage daughter and the memories flooded into my mind.  Her hands had turned the pages and created the scribbling inside. I shredded and wove the pages of this book into fabric and created this dress in memory of that little girl gone.

2017, 62” X 24” X 1”, Repurposed Fabric, Paint, Thread, NFS

When a loved one passes away it can be hard to part with even their unremarkable possessions. My Mother had quite a collection of easy on/ easy off sweat pants. As my Grandmother once made quilt tops from the remnants of my clothes, I created this work to help alleviate my sorrow. Syb’s bed linen was painted with the movement of incense as prayers then cut, stitched onto pieced pants fabric and embellished with thread. Prayers that never cease.

2017, 36” X 18” X 5”, Adult Diapers, Fabric Dryer Sheets, Wood

Having been a caregiver, depends adult diapers remind me of end of life issues. Such pretty fabric for such a hard time of life. Fabric dryer sheets always remind me of Christening gowns. Such a sweet fragrance and the lightness of innocence. I took these materials and fabricated them to become a remembrance, a beginning and an ending and the life in between.

2014, 36” X 14” X 5”, Dryer Fabric Sheets

I have a thing about fabric dryer sheets.  The sheets smell so sweet but are really chemical laden.  When sewn together to create fabric they have a ghost like quality. They become more than an infant Christening gowns. The gown becomes the memory of a life that is now gone but forever remembered.

2017, 23” X 23” X 7”, Rose Petal, Fabric, Metal

Red rose petals on the ground always remind me of a red dress coat that I wore as a little child.  To my Mother a formal coat was a vital necessity for every little girl.  I have a photo of an uncooperative, sulking me wearing that coat and I can still remember having that picture taken and the poutiness I felt.  It could be the color or the velvet texture of the petals that evoke this image.  Regardless, I harvested the petals from my bushes, glued them to form a fabric and constructed this coat from a vintage pattern thus completing the memory for you.

2015, 38” X 48” X 1”, Fabric, Paint, Thread, NFS

When I see the photo that inspired this work, I am remembering what I remember. My sister and I had our photo taken by a door-to-door photographer in our family dining room and over the years it been taken out of the photo box and reviewed again.  I remember the red wallpaper with the gold pagodas on it but not the actual taking of the picture. This work is reminiscent of quilt making in that I have used scraps of fabric taken from our clothes or other projects as my Grandmother would have done.  This fabric along with paint and thread on a bed linen background becomes the picture of the memory that I remember.

2017, 20” X 10” X 9”, Found Educational Posters and Books

I have a love/hate relationship with metal lunchboxes ever since my sister had a Lone Ranger one and I didn’t.  It doesn’t matter that I wasn’t in school and didn’t need one and obviously it was very traumatic since I still recall the event. This recollection resurfaced after I found some curriculum posters that were being tossed out. I shredded them and wove them to become my representation of a lunch box monolith. "Hi-Yo, Silver! Away!"