When I bought a tablecloth, with embroidered abstract kidney shapes and small x’s in the corners, on eBay, I saw it as the beginning of a visual story.

Through his DNA, my father passed the gene to Dent Disease, a rare x-linked kidney disease, to me and I passed it to my son.

While I have series of kidney donation paintings, I decided to include X’s and Kidneys in my Loss series because my father and son lost kidney function which resulted in both of them having kidney transplants (many decades apart), and I donated my kidney indirectly to my son, so I “lost” a kidney but in a good way that was my choice.

X’s and Kidneys is a mixed media painting that measures 30.5" x 36". Monoprinted construction fence fabric with hand stamped x’s and machine stitching are surrounded by a section of a hand embroidered tablecloth.