Statement

As a child I chased butterflies, scrambled over rocks, and read romantic tales of faraway places. Years later, I've studied butterflies and rocks, and traveled to many of the places - the Amazon rainforest, craggy cliffs with castle ruins, remote island beaches - and I've never lost the wonder of them. Yet exotic beauty can be found everywhere.

I use the ancient technique of feltmaking not to capture what I've seen directly, but to create something new. The simplicity of the technique - combing, layering, and working dyed unspun wool in hot water until the fibers lock - allows me to work spontaneously, and often experimentally. The shape of a piece might come from a bird's wing, the color from crystals under a microscope, a line from the sinuous edge of a pond meeting the shore, and the texture from the bark of a birch tree. I wish to celebrate nature, not to mirror it.

Selected Shows/Exhibits

• Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art, NC 1998, 2005
• Crafts National 35, Penn State, PA 2001
• U.S. Embassy, Armenia 2002-2005
• U.S. Embassy, Turkmenistan 1999-2001
• Fayetteville Museum of Art 2001, 2000
• Idaho State University 2000 (solo show), 1994 (three-person show)
• Twentieth Century Gallery, Williamsburg, VA 1997 (two-person show)
• Hickory Museum of Art, Hickory, NC 1998, 1997, 1995
• Virginia Center for Contemporary Art 1997, 1996
• Piedmont Crafts Fair 2001, 2000, 1999 (Best Booth Award), 1998, 1983-96 (Choice Award for Fiber 1994, 1992)
• Kentucky Art and Craft Gallery 1996
• Atlanta International Museum of Art and Design 1996
• ACC CraftFairs - Baltimore 1999, 1998, 1996, 1995; Tampa 1993; Atlanta 1998, 1991, 1990; San Francisco 1989, 1985; Rhinebeck 1983
• Kentuck Museum, Northport, AL 1996
• Museum of Fine Arts, St. Petersburg, FL 1995