Maggy Rozycki Hiltner, Treehouses 2, 2019, hand-stitched and found embroidery, linen, 25 x 16 x 1 in

Maggy Rozycki Hiltner is a full-time studio artist and living in Red Lodge, Montana. For over 30 years now, she has been collaging found embroidery and quilts with her hand-stitched imagery, giving these abandoned textiles new meaning and relevance. Her work has been published and exhibited in museums and galleries nationally and internationally, and she was a recipient of the Montana Arts Council Artist's Innovation Award. 'I've tasked myself with questioning the artifacts of my culture by changing their context and content. Working with handmade remnants of the past, I repurpose them to comment on the present, and I employ a multitude of anonymous assistants. I try to celebrate and elevate their abandoned handwork. I search antique shops, thrift stores and yard sales for embroidered linens and quilts, collecting the brightly colored flowers, foliage, animals, and patterns that appear in my work. What I cannot find I hand-stitch and mix in with the collected embroidery. I use the familiarity of the stitch along with seemingly lighthearted and cheerful designs to convey more serious subject matter. I often use humor to tell my stories, and very rarely is everything quite what it seems.'