Artist Statement, In Progress The “Sampler Series” is a group of five hand-embroidered, evocative phrases quoted from a twelve-step book about recovery from alcoholism. As a person in recovery and learning about wellness every day, I use the tedious medium of hand-spinning the fur and hair yarn – a technique I needed to teach myself – and of samplers in the tradition of embroidery as a medium to educate women. The elements from my body are evidence of my sloughing of the perceptions of me as an alcoholic, now as a person in recovery; and perceptions of the disease itself. My cat’s fur serves as both comfort and as further evidence of sloughing, and the antique blue thread and tan beads from my grandmother’s collection suggest the genealogical threading of this disease in my family.