About my work

Working with my hands is something I have been doing my entire life, starting when my grandmother and mother taught me their needlework and sewing skills, on through school and my adult life. When I moved to Weaverville, North Carolina, I began learning the crafts of the area, such as basketmaking, loom weaving, bead work, braided wool rugs, gardening and canning the family food. Having been raised a city person from New Orleans, all of these back to earth things were a very welcome change in my life, giving me inspiration and new direction.

My vessels are woven entirely of heavy cotton archival paper that I have painted and textured using many different surface design techniques. The medium of paper empowers me to explore and have fun with technique, structure, color and detail, while the curls give emphasis to movement, texture and dimension. Working in paper has set my creative spirit free.

Color is what grabs me!! I first imagine a color combination that excites me, then I choose a vessel form on which to place those colors. The color from nature, animals, textiles, ethnic prints, contemporary weavings and even clothing that I see people wearing inspires me and are my guiding influences to encourage the vessel into being. My surroundings give me unlimited inspiration, living in the Appalachian Mountains where my husband John and I have a farm with numerous farm animals that give me great pleasure.

My work is based on traditional structures, including Shaker, Nantucket and Native American influences. I combine these traditional techniques with a contemporary spin, giving my pieces their own voice, spirit and grace. The feet that lift my vessels are a form that gives them a light perky personality, particularly bringing any animal inspirations that I have to life. I incorporate different weave structures and techniques to further enhance the inspiration that I am trying to capture. As I shape a vessel, I try to achieve a feeling of lightness and movement having no straight lines. The curl embellishments I find interesting and intriguing. Observe as you walk around a piece, the “eyes” follow you. Experience their rhythm. Enjoy their dance.

Basketmaking is meditative, relaxing, and has a rhythm that I find pleasurable. My greatest pleasure in the process is to sit back and view my finished work, and enjoy the thought of sharing a part of myself with the world that will endure long after I am gone.

Member of the Southern Highland Craft Guild

https://www.southernhighlandguild.org

Represented by:

Blue Spiral 1 Fine Arts & Craft

http://bluespiral1.com