Philosophy
We are the stories we create. The environments we build reflect those stories.
Life begins with one cell. Incrementally, a complex organism becomes possibility and then real. Over time the new being transpires through a life cycle that becomes its story. My work mirrors this cycle. Small things add up. Steadily combining tiny threads or small pieces of stone, responding to the paths that arise during the combining, can create unexpectedly passionate and vibrant results. That is my goal for both my personal work and clients.
Stories
I am a story addict.
I am a story conduit.
Everyone has a story. But some of us face a conundrum. How do we tell our stories so others will hear them? All of us strive to find a way.
Work for Clients
I can be the channel to tell your story, whether it is something that you wear that defines you. Or something that transforms where you live into a place that reflects your uniqueness and makes your environment personal. Or something that endorses your business to the people you want to attract. Or something that introduces your institution to the people you serve in a positive way.
You may be a maker of art furniture or clothing.
You may be an architect, a designer of interiors, or a transformer of interior or exterior special spaces.
You may be a home or condo owner.
I work the same with all my clients to learn their stories and design and create a special piece for them. I work with many materials but most of my work involves fiber, stone, or glass. I braid and twine threads to make complex patterns of silk that I turn into exquisite wall hanging. I position cut and shaped stones and glass to make symbolic mosaic patterns on walls, floors, and free hanging panels.
When I work with clients I often draw on the talents, skills, and abilities of other artists, makers, and fabricators in my milieu, that bring different experience from my own. I enjoy leading these teams and inspiring their best work to further enhance and expand the end result.
My Own Art Expression
I like to transform environments into creative, motivating places, my own included.
I think multi-dimensionally and my pieces tend tol have a 3 dimensional aspect to them. I like to have fantasy worlds in my pieces for the viewer to discover and fill with his/her own imagination.
All of my pieces have a story encased within them. These stories come from many places. I have always structured my life in a way that allows for surprises — the arrival of unexpected opportunities. Predictability has not been a goal for me. I want to be surprised by life and to channel that into my work and project it through the people around me. I start my pieces sometimes knowing the story I want to tell — but usually I only know a piece of it at the beginning. As I work, the rest of it emerges… like discovering the ubiquitous ice berg beneath the surface.
I start my stories by creating many intriguing small pieces: interlaced kumihimo braids, wire chrysalis, dyed thread or stone pieces, clusters of broken or painted glass, turned wooden shapes. I then combine them in different ways. Along the path of combination there are many surprises and discoveries. I leave them for the viewer to find.
Viewing my work. It is best to see it from afar first and then to walk up to it until you see it very closely. Each distance tells a different part of the story that is enmeshed within. There are always surprises. Everything is there for a reason.