Have you ever felt surrounded while alone in woods just by the way branches quiver in the wind? Caught a glimpse of something only to be left questioning what you saw? The feeling that something or someone may be watching is an evolved human instinct that has followed us through the forest, the city, and the screen. In the distance, through the leaves, under water, out of the corner of your eye, reflections in a lens, something rustling, following, calling, stalking. Shared realities are built on collective observation, and it feels like it’s getting harder to agree on what we’re seeing. Photoshopped and AI generated media, lying politicians, and cluttered built environments all add to the confusion - not too mention all that haze from the wildfire smoke. Sometimes I start to believe I’ve got the truth nailed down and then it’s gone, a flicker of light through a shadow. These Perception Studies are my way of documenting and processing this disorientation. Playing with pattern to disrupt a visual field, I try to capture the experience of catching a glimpse of something and the paranoia it can provoke. Incorporating resist-dyed fabric, recycled quilting cotton, quilted textures, handspun wool, beads, rocks, and other embellishments, I aim to create a confused surface, a mirage.