About Me

My journey began as a traditional fine arts student trained in drawing, painting, and printmaking but I was drawn to textiles: the textures, patterns of cloth, its weight, its movement and simply the touch of it. I began experimenting with natural dyes and fabric printing: batik, block printing and silk screening. My first quilts were abstract. Soon my quilts became figurative and narrative in nature, I have a story to tell.

I use fabric as my palette rather than paint. Early in my career, Hollis Sigler, a painter, and I received a Chairman’s Grant from the Illinois Arts Council and a National Endowment for the Arts Grant to collaborate on a series of quilts , combining our different art forms, painting and quilting, elevating our quilt, “The Course of Love”, to hang side-by-side with paintings at Dart Gallery in Chicago, at a time when people only thought of quilts on beds.

Nature, travel and the love of color are the foremost influences on my work. I follow my intuition, working from a sketch, my quilts evolve during the process, layer upon layer. I work with traditional materials: cottons and natural fabrics; I also uses found objects, recycled clothing, upholstery and household fabrics. I am influenced by the simple and colorful paintings and cutouts of Matisse. I look for strong lines, color, pattern and composition in my work. I want to evoke a feeling. My themes are straightforward: I explore nature, identity and the passing of time.

Throughout the years, my path has led to collaborations, artist residency, solo shows, commissions and exhibitions of art quilts in the United States, United Kingdom and Europe.

I currently live and work in Cary, North Carolina.

Organizations:
Studio Art Quilts Association
SAQA North Carolina/ Virginia Region; Europe and Middle East Region
Professional Art Quilters Alliance South
Fine Arts League – Cary