Colleen Toutant Merrill: Interstice

September 03, 2026 - September 24, 2026

From St. Edward's University: *“Interstice* is often referred to as the space that intervenes between things. The works from this exhibition explore the gray area of how public influence and social structures impede our most personal relationships and overall quality of life, often looking at notions of morality and gender ideals within the family and home. Found textiles are collaged into abstract forms that suggest bodily complexity, but also play with memory, intimacy, and care. These fibers are recognizable as having a past life and purpose but are broken apart, transformed, reconnected, and made anew. Overt embellishment can, at first, seem beautiful and enticing but quickly becomes garish and lurid. Works from the Day in & Day Out series draw on obscure imagery and metaphors from children’s literature and folklore to examine how historical morals and tropes mirror contemporary societal ethics and values. I juxtapose motifs and characters from these stores to draw upon humor and irony, to cope with my persistent waning patriotism and deconstruction of living the American dream. Interstice I and II, Big Red, and Plebiscite seek to enter the nuance between the power of the binary, using organic form to break up the X /Y axis commonly utilized in quilting and weaving as a metaphor for resistance. Works from the RYB series also look at problematic binary power structures, with an emphasis on oversimplified reductive thinking; in this case, RYB as symbolic of a ridged either/or framework for color theory."

Reception September 03\, 2026 \| 5:30 - 8:00 pm

[St. Edwards University Fine Arts Gallery](https://glasstire.com/venues/st-edwards-university-fine-arts-gallery/) 3001 South Congress Austin, Texas 78704 [Get Directions](https://www.google.com/maps/dir/?api=1&destination=30.2292711,-97.75552)