About the Artist

I attended the University of Nebraska from 1970 to 1974, obtaining a BFA in Art. In 1976, I attended the SummerVail Art Workshop in Vail, Colorado working the entire summer with various teachers from around the country. At the end of 1977, I moved to Lancaster, Pennsylvania. While in Lancaster I was exposed to the large Amish quilting community, which would later have a pronounced influence on my work.

In 1978, I moved to Tacoma, Washington to attend the University of Puget Sound and earn my Master of Fine Arts degree.

A series of lectures given by Buckminster Fuller had a profound effect on the work I was doing. The lecture describing his geodesic dome was most memorable. He came out on stage with a very floppy group of plastic rods, all attached to each other at both ends. As he continued to talk, he would periodically pull out one of the rods, until he finally was left holding three rods with not one bit of movement. This was the principle of his geodesic dome, all built with triangles. After that lecture I made a large series of clay slabs with grids and towers that were made of extruded triangles.

During the summer after graduation in 1980, I attended the Banff Centre of Fine Arts in Banff, Alberta. I spent a great deal of time with the people in the fiber department. Nedi-al-Helali was one artist I very much admired. Her work was paper that was woven, pressed and painted to give a very three-dimensional look.

When I returned to Seattle I began experimenting with different papers and dyes, finally deciding to use fiber-reactive dyes and a silkscreen paper.

My current work contains some old marbled paper, the dyed paper with both solid and “smoky dyed paper,” and a richly colored black paper. “Smoky paper” is paper that has been cut first then dyed in such a way that some get more dye than others, creating a smoky effect.

The influences of so many artists and ideas from these years are integrated in my work now. The juxtaposition of various textures and colors and optical relationships draws me forward to new ideas.