Homespun is a series of five autobiographical flags designed for MOCA NOMI’s temporary public art program, Art On The Plaza. Each flag is based on experiences growing up in Northwest Georgia and represents distinct moments from my childhood, touching on a variety of subject matter. Catfish, fireflies, garden produce, and familial figures serve as personal iconography from my rural nostalgia. Pieced with bright, vibrantly hued textiles, the flags' colors evoke warm memories shaped by family, home, and land. Relationally, the flagpoles are painted with vivid colors to create a cohesive installation.

The title for this series of flags is inspired by the Homespun Festival, an annual event in my hometown that showcases locally grown, crafted, or assembled products. The "proudly homemade" sentiments are an endearing homage to craft and labor. By titling this series the same name as the festival, I personalize my experience of what Homespun means to my work, values, and practice, while highlighting the manual labor that goes into each piece.

I chose flags because of the cultural significance they can hold, specifically around commemoration and memorial. In this case, it’s about remembering childhood and the labor it takes to make the veneration of growing up a point of creative inspiration. I wanted the work to result in flags because of how the material unfurls similarly to how memories come to mind. When the wind isn’t blowing, the visuals are hidden, but when there is a strong enough gust, comparable to something that triggers a memory, they appear. There is a transient nature to the flags as the sun will slowly fade the pigment, highlighting how memory can never replicate the moment, and is an evolving, ephemeral experience.