Ashley Sauder Miller

I make collages using secondhand textiles – vintage fabric, old clothing, discarded linens, damaged upholstery – as my predominant material. Ongoing themes within my work include imagined interiors, chairs, and landscapes. I collect materials based on formal qualities such as texture, color, and pattern without any regard to era or value. Both the delicate hand stitched embroidery from the corner of a vintage handkerchief and the striped retro 70s synthetic knit shirt have equal merit within my work. While I initially select materials based on formal elements, I also have an interest in the stories these materials inherently hold, they are bits and pieces of nostalgia, a collection of past lifetimes. Through an intuitive working process, I cut, layer, and shift these seemingly disparate materials until they seamlessly and beautifully fit together within a piece. The work that results forms a new narrative – one both deeply personal and widely shared – stories of loss, remembrance, expectancy, surprise, hope, and change.