Artist Statement

I'm a California girl. Just one that grew up and was educated in warm, sunny Florida . It was in Florida that I studied art and design before visiting the Golden State in the early 1980s. During those early visits I knew I was hooked and soon I made the move permanently. California is filled with natural wonders at every turn that offered unending opportunities for discovery, so camera in hand I set off for adventure and to record many newfound wonders. There were trips around town to favorite landmarks, hiking in the local mountains, weekend excursions to coastal towns with incredible beaches, and visits to wondrous state and national parks.

While I had always loved textiles it wasn't until the early 1990's, while I was off exploring, that quilting found me. After that first encounter it was only a matter of months before my darkroom came down as I made room for my sewing machine, and I focused my artwork on quilting. Around 1996 I began to lecture and teach nationally, and exhibit my quiltworks internationally. Today I continue to work as a fiber artist from my Signal Hill, California studio.

Inspiration for my quiltart is drawn from my love of the ever-changing hills that make up our landscape, and from the ravens that mirror and mock this region's boisterous, and sometimes-crazy human residents. Watching ravens, I see how they live and weave their lives among us. Keeping an eye on us, laughing at us, they point to a layer of life that often goes unnoticed.

Poet Mary Oliver refers to these rowdy creatures as “an advertisement for the more than ordinary life.” By allowing myself to experiment with materials, techniques, and color my works are attempts to express our always wondrous, always changing landscape.

In my work I use the idea of layers to transform fabric. I began by creating a layer of strong structural shapes that are important for their initial impact on the senses, and the suggestion they give of the landscape.

Like a raven, stealing and hoarding the ‘shiny objects', I embellish the areas of the base quilt canvas. I use handspun yarns to create strong lines to highlight each shape, and I add whimsy, texture, and sparkle by using a variety of glass beads and magical, shiny found objects. These embellishments used in combination with hand painted, hand dyed fabrics, imported silks and selected textural layers bring each original piece to life.