Artist biography
Linda Cabot
Grandmothers, Mothers, Daughters. This lineage of women, and the evolving bonds between them, is at the heart of my work. I’m drawn not only to the intimacy of these relationships, but to how they stretch, shift, and deepen over time. To explore and reflect these transformations, I’ve created what I call Garden Collages—layered visual spaces where memory, growth, and generational connection intertwine.
The process of collage itself has become integral to the work’s meaning. My source material includes lace textiles, embroidery silk threads, baby shoes, puzzle pieces, and fabric or embellishments from old prom, debutante, and wedding dresses worn through generations.
I use these materials with a gel printing plate to create patterned impressions on handmade papers. I also create floral prints by using plants from my garden as natural stencils. Every item was once touched or tended to by the women and girls in my life, making their essence inextricable from the work itself.
I hand cut or tear these printed papers by forming them into shapes of leaves, flower petals, and decorative patterns. I begin layering and gluing with a sense of remembrance, thinking of where each item was worn or used. The process is intuitive and emergent, not pre-planned, each step guided by the last, much like arranging flowers.
My intention is always harmony, honoring memory while allowing the piece to grow in its own way. I hope to evoke a sense of time, with transparent images layered as if the past is peeking through and informing the present. By combining and layering these pieces, each collage becomes a conversation across time…contemporary in form, yet rooted in generational memory.
My grandmother, mother, I have all had gardens and I trust that my daughters and granddaughters will too. A garden is a place where life is nurtured and beauty flourishes. It embodies the universal act of care passed down through generations. Like the generations of women before and after me, our gardens carry the hope that what we plant will take root, bloom, and thrive.
