Welcome!  I am a textile artist.  I use fabric, related fibers and accoutrements to achieve art that accents our visual life.  I manipulate color on fabric using dyes and by discharging (removing color). I work exclusively with these hand-dyed and printed fabrics.  I also incorporate foils, paint, embroidery, beads, quilting, and felting. You will find me making long, narrow wall hangings (this guides the eye pleasingly through the work) as well as smaller items like fiberart postcards and Artist Trading Cards. 

When I work with applications of color on fabric, I am reminded of how these foundation materials direct the creative structure of my work.  They spark my creative fire.  They are the starting point of endless possibilities.  They assist me in my search for individuality.  One piece of finished fabric is all I need to rocket myself off toward an adventure in artspace.

I begin a piece by freely applying dyes to fabric or by removing the color. I use stamps, rollers, stencils, and silk screens which I make myself.  I also apply or remove color with the use of found objects.  During this phase, I tend to see only color, pattern and texture, not a finished product other than the fabric itself.  It is the finished textile that inspires me and leads me.  Additional fabric may then be dyed to accommodate the emerging vision.

I know a piece is finished when several elements are present:  good movement of the eye through the piece, good use of accent color and a visual balance of recurrent themes. 

When my work is going well, I am filled with a sense of urgency.  I am compelled. I work exclusively on that one piece until its completion.  I become focused as if gazing down into a beautiful hall whose walls are made of textiles, fibers, threads, dyes, and beads.  At the end of the hall is "the vision."  My workspace quickly becomes piled high with remnants cast off during the frenzy of creation.  Only a small cleared space is discernable and it is filled with the work in progress.  Upon completion, I finally exhale, clean up my studio and prepare to start all over again!