Meet the Artist
Fiber has been a part of my life since learning to quilt from my grandmother as a young girl and extending into middle school home economics sewing class. As a young mother, living in the New England seacoast, I enrolled in the fiber art department of the University of New Hampshire schooled in the foundation of fabric design and traditional weaving structures. When my family moved back to Ohio, I enrolled at Kent State University, and I started to explore fiber as fine art. The stage was set for the exploration of felt. I fell in love with the feel of the fibers and have always dreamt of living in a felt yurt! Slowly I began to make felt which has become my primary medium.
Meet the Art
In the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia, I witnessed daily the beauty of the Blue Ridge Mountains which are the impetus behind this series of landscapes. I've incorporated various fibers into the pieces; merino, alpaca, mohair, silk, bamboo, utilizing both locally harvested wools and plant-based dyes and sourcing from around the world for fibers. I chose to mount many of the pieces behind old doors and windows to invoke the viewer’s imagination of looking out a window towards the Blue Ridge Mountains. Now, back living in central Ohio, the trees and native plants of the wooded landscape speak of “regeneration and renewal,” an often-contemplated theme in these tumultuous times. In my small way I work with renewable resources in an effort to support sustainability and cultivate a vision of shared responsibility. The choice of renewable fiber suited my sensibilities. Fiber art calls us to touch, smell and awaken an old ancient memory, and as I look out and walk the woods, I see texture and color which fills my consciousness and serves to solace my soul.