The opportunity to be creative and continually learn as I experiment with new ideas and possibilities is what makes my art fun for me. It is always a new adventure. Natural material is my chosen medium, from minerals and rocks formed deep in the earth to soft wool fleeces and yarns to pine needles, wild iris, and other plant fibers, all of these in a wonderful array of textures and colors.
My background includes 15 years of teaching science and language arts at the middle school level and several quarters teaching ESL at the university level. I found that incorporating my own love of art into my teaching allowed students another avenue for expressing their learning. While I was teaching I began experimenting with tapestry weaving and thus began my love of working with natural materials. When I left teaching in 2001, I had the time to do more discovering of myself as an artist. I learned to make pine needle baskets and discovered felting.
Each of these mediums allows me to express myself through art in a unique way. Each offers its own possibilities and restrictions; where one has boundaries, another has an open vista. This makes the opportunities for creativity seem endless and it makes giving up any one very difficult. For the moment, my focus is on basket making and wool sculpture
When I make a coiled basket the knowledge that I am sharing in ancient processes brings me pleasure. It is not, however, my desire to imitate the beauty of those who have gone before me, but rather to explore my own unique ideas and creativity. When I am sculpting with wool I have the opportunity to bring to life a vision. Often, my projects take on a life of their own. I may begin with an idea, but then as I work, I often hear an inner voice that leads me in directions that are new and different. I am learning to listen to that voice and to flow with it.
There is something special about gently cradling a basket in your hands. And there is something joyful, amazing, and often whimsical about three-dimensional figures made of fleece. I create all of these for the pleasure it brings me and with a hope that others will find something that speaks to them.