Artist Statement

Heather Kerley (b. 1977, She/Her) is a mixed media and fiber artist living in the Washington DC area. Kerley’s art encompasses a diverse range of styles and mediums, from watercolor to collage to fiber. However, her interest in sustainability, ecology, and repairing humanity’s rift with the natural world has remained consistent over time.

In 2024, Kerley completed a large redwork quilt depicting the 23 species the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service proposed for delisting due to extinction. Each block in the quilt is based on Kerley’s research and hand-drawings and is embroidered and quilted by hand. As Kerley has worked on this project, she has found that her own feelings of grief and her struggle to find optimism has many ups and downs and even more layers. In the end, it is an evolving process and the slow, meditative act of hand-stitching has become process-as-metaphor.

While exploring the process of grieving for these species as she stitched this quilt, she wanted to offer possibilities for healing the land and ourselves from the environmental devastation we see all around us. To this end, she has been engaged in a two-year process of “re-wilding” her suburban yard while making fiber art pieces and paintings that explore regeneration, co-creation, and the process of re-kinning ourselves with the natural world. By also celebrating life alongside loss, this ever-evolving project taps into the historical healing role that quilts and fiber art have played in material culture. Further, it conveys a message about the resilience of the spark of life, if not its distinct manifestations in certain species.

Land Acknowledgment

I offer respect and recognition to the Piscataway People, on whose ancestral lands I live and work, and honor their elders, past and present. I further recognize all those who have built vital communities on this land. Many of them came here against their will or out of desperation, with complicated histories, hopes, and dreams. I also acknowledge and respect the non-human peoples and histories that are woven into the tapestry of this place. Truth and acknowledgment are critical to rebuilding connection across difference, so I am committed to uncovering buried truths, deepening my relationship with these histories, learning about them, and respectfully supporting and healing these relationships. 

Support the Through Piscataway Eyes Land Trust, donate here.