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.
Living once again in central Ohio, I find that the trees and native plants around me seem to speak of renewal and new beginnings—a theme I return to often in these unsettled times. In my own small way, I work with renewable materials to support sustainability and to nurture a sense of shared responsibility. Choosing renewable fiber felt natural to me. Fiber art invites us to touch, to breathe in its scent, and to stir something ancient within us. As I look out at the woods or walk among them, their textures and colors fill my mind and offer a quiet comfort to my spirit.