Anna Von Mertens
Themes and patterns. Despite beginning her quilt-making career using clothes from the Salvation Army, Von Mertens found satisfaction in creating quilts inspired by "odd avenues of knowledge and inquiry." More specifically, one can view her work as a combination of art, science and history. For example, in one of her series, "As the Stars Go By", Von Merten's hand-stitched a pattern of star rotation serves as a way to document violent moments in American history. She has stated of the series, "The work is intended to act on many levels: as a memorial, as  an actual vantage from a specific moment in history, but ultimately I am simply documenting an impassive natural cycle that is oblivious to the violence below." Other prominent themes that take form in the patterns she uses include the dispersion of nuclear energy, hidden topographies, and migration routes of humans and birds. In an interview, Von Mertens states, "These patterns reveal to me aspects of our existence whether it is how we experience time and face the infinite- embedded in that is our own mortality- or how the boundary of the body is presented to others versus how it is  felt internally." The pieces use various methods of measurement and data sources including tree ring growth charts, star charts and imagery of magnetic poles. One series included an investigation of the idea of aura specifically visualized through aura photographs. Using a hand dying method, Von Mertens created her aura works based on well-known or significant art historical paintings. She has described the process of hand-switching the work as a measurement of time that situates the individual within the broader universe. The process involves chalking the lines, hand stitching and sometimes hand-dying the pieces. In some works the  dye is painted onto the fabric. In addition to being connected to contemporary craft and conceptual art Von Metern's work is also often categorized as data art and within cartography and mapping practices.