The 100 Day Project #51

Curtain Detail, 1

Philadelphia, PA 2017

The 100 Day Project, Day 51

Tonight I'm back in Philadelphia.

Mike and I lived here for five years after grad school, while I was trying to build a career in museums. I spent a lot of time at the Philadelphia Museum of Art — learning the collection, hoping eventually to work there.

I never did get that job. Nearly always in my life, the door that didn't open turned out to be the one I was never meant to walk through. What came instead was more than I would have designed for myself.

Yet, I still love the PMA. One of my favorite parts of the museum is the period rooms — interiors of American homes preserved exactly as they once existed. Furniture, wallpaper, light. A life, reconstructed. This is where I found this curtain.

This photograph is of a rich mustard fringe lining a silk curtain — from one of the Federal or Victorian-era rooms, when elaborate textile detail was a mark of taste and wealth. A small, extravagant thing in a room no one has lived in for a very long time.

I have been sewing for as long as I can remember, which is where my love of textiles began. The handling of fabric. Learning what different materials can and cannot do. It’s a fascination that never left me — it just expanded into my other business, Brightly Studios, where I print my photographs on fabric and sew them into vibrant home decor.

About the 100 Day Project: A global creative challenge where thousands of artists share a piece of their practice every single day for 100 days. I'm joining creatives around the world, and I'm excited to bring you along. Each day I'll be sharing one of my photos — some recent, some old, and some from my current project — along with the story behind it: where I was, who I was with, and why I love it.