Living upon a web of fault lines, as all Californians do, Jessie Homer French decided to make “safe art for above one’s bed in case of temblors.” Her “mapestries” are hand-embroidered maps made of a variety of cloths and threads that resemble the qualities of quilts.

Most of the mapestries in this exhibition are based on the area she inhabits, the Coachella Valley, Joshua Tree and Salton Sea, while others focus on the LA Basin. The fault lines themselves are one inch wide strips of cloth that traverse through finely stitched palm trees, roadrunners, chuckwallas, ocotillos, and highways.

Her work combines elements of traditional gendered handicraft with a contemporary, environmental awareness and place-oriented sensibility.