Hobart and William Smith Colleges

Ten years after moving to New York City I embarked on a project of personal significance as a way of exploring my family's beliefs, embedded in the culture of superstitions of my native Transylvania. After teaching myself embroidery, a craft I'd perceived as gendered and oppressive and managed to avoid learning as a girl growing up in Transylvania, I created "Lessons From My Mother," a series of embroideries of hand-stitched words and informational diagrams on white cotton canvas. In time the series expanded to include my mother's continuously evolving personal mythology of men, family, and ghosts.

Andrea Dezsö is a visual artist who works across a broad range of media, including drawing, painting, artist's books, cut paper, embroidery, animation, sculpture, site-specific installation, and permanent public art. Dezsö's mosaic in the New York City subway was awarded Best American Public Art in 2007. Dezsö is an award-winning illustrator whose work has been featured in the New York Times, Sony Music, and Candlewick Press. She is assistant professor of art at Hampshire College in Amherst, MA. View Dezsö's website.