Through Merill’s multi-stepped, labor intensive process, she transforms the debris of today into lush, sensual views of a garden for tomorrow.
Merill is drawn to the discarded. She collects
worn clothing from friends and family, stained vintage table linens, spotted brush cleaning rags from painters, and torn plastic net from vegetable and fruit bags. She deconstructs and reconstructs her materials using techniques of over painting, printing, cutting, appliqué and sewing. Her evolution of materials and her use of landscape imagery are metaphors for the shared human experience of the life cycle: birth, bloom, wilt, death and rebirth.

Merill’s materials, ninety percent reclaimed, give visual voice to the green movement’s call to reuse, repurpose and recycle. Her collage and sewing techniques pay homage to the history of “women’s work”: cutting pieces of fabric from no longer functional clothing, arranging them into beautiful patterns and sewing quilts. Merill’s work is at the intersection of fine art and craft.