Cicelia Ross-Gotta
Feel Just Like Home
Jan. 2021 – Feb. 2021

Is someone who lives in temporary housing still homeless? Cicelia Ross-Gotta explores this question with hand-embroidered internet reviews of the motel where a family member lived August 2016 – September 2019. Hung on cheap towel racks, these reviews are embroidered on used linens and bordered by used towels with unfinished raw edges. While the domestic associations with hand embroidery and quilting gesture toward home-making, the unfinished presentation stops short of achieving that goal — because while her family member is housed, she explains, they are not home. 

While this work has personal origins, it has grown much beyond her family member’s story. As Ross-Gotta sorted through the reviews, she became fascinated by what she learned about the community at this motel: from dirty linens and noise complaints to reviews written by homeless people and reviews that complain about the homeless people who live there. 

Curated by Michelle Laxalt & Michelle Lassaline

WATCH: Coulter Fussell + Cicelia Ross-Gotta in Conversation w/ Guest Curators on YouTube

Ross-Gotta originally is from Kansas, earned her BFA in Sculpture from Colorado State University in 2015, and her MFA in 3D4M (sculpture) from the University of Washington in 2017. That year she also became a mother. Her work has been exhibited throughout Seattle including, The Henry Gallery, Seattle Art Museum’s Olympic Sculpture Park, Gallery 4Culture and Bainbridge Gallery of Art and Crafts. Her work has also been featured in Surface Design Journal’s 2017 International Exhibition in Print. She has been awarded grants from Artist Trust, 4Culture, and the Surface Design Association.

This exhibition is related to a project organized by Michelle Lassaline and Michelle Laxalt as part of the Holland Project’s Curator Series. The series is supported in-part by Nevada Humanities.