How can I honor a hole in a screen door that I saw in Panama? Thinking about the causes of that particularly intriguing arrangement of lines in the hole was fascinating to me.

Over time, many people pressed their hands on the screen door to open and close it, which caused stresses in the metal mesh. Rain hit it, wind blew on it, and little by little, parts of it rusted and wore away. As strands of the mesh broke, a beautiful line design was formed. In the various panels on the artwork, I emphasized zoomed-in views of the hole’s design.

So, in essence, Screen Door With a View is not only how we view the door, but also it is a story of what happened to it from the viewpoint of the door.

I created it by drawing the design on the back of the fabric and then machine stitched from the back with heavy threads in the bobbin. I used rip-stop nylon thread, pearl cotton thread, and embroidery thread. The colors on the fabric are from acrylic paints with fabric medium. The rusty looking fabric patches are commercial fabric. To keep the Central American theme, I stitched part of a Guatemalan scarf to the left and right edges. Three actual keys are sewn on.

The back is a patterned cotton fabric with a fabric hanging sleeve. A wooden slat with eye hooks is inserted in the sleeve and hanging wire is attached. It is ready to hang and lays flat against the wall.