My figurative paintings honor the difficult narratives and resilient histories of my female relatives through material and psychological gestures of repair—decoupage, stitching, print, and transfer. I create and accumulate fragments of painted paper, which become a lexicon of mark and color to use as collage. The layers of painted paper reference both the formal language of painting and the body; they accrue like skin, constructing or obscuring form, or are ripped away, leaving only a trace. 

Using kitchen towels and other found domestic textiles as substrates, I explore the resistance inherent in making do, which connects to female traditions of labor and innovation. Each textile comes with a history—stains, tears, burns, bleach marks—which informs my alterations. Through acts of stitching, decoupage and patching, practices associated with women's domestic labor and craft, I see my interventions acts of repair and re-envisioning.

• Jeanne Ciravolo