Nutshell

I’m from California, living in Tucson, Arizona. Went to the desert for college, fell in love and stayed. Got a BA in Art History and a M.ed. Taught elementary school for a few years, moved and worked in my own studio where I realized my deep love and need for making art. Had kids, moved to Tucson and taught Art K-8 for many years. Through teaching I developed my own practice, exploring techniques and materials I wouldn’t play with otherwise. The need to make my own work pulled at my heart strings and so I left teaching to dive into the world of being a full-time artist. 

Process | Progress

Before I realized I was an artist, I was a clipper. You know, like a grandma that cuts out articles and then sends them to you, except I was in college, and way into The New York Times Arts and Styles section. Until this point my connection with art came through art history, travel, and film photography. Through a color film class assignment, I can’t tell you what it was, I created a quilt of landscape and architecture images from around campus to make a “fabric of the university.” To be honest, it didn’t turn out great. But, it was the idea that has never let go of me. It has transformed over the years, using patterns with symbolism and meaning, images from Vogue and Departures, bringing in the attitude of editorial content to the traditional patterns and structure. It turned from what makes up a place to what makes up my ideas and attitudes about femininity, want, and desire.

I started cutting images by hand, which by the way, I am not precise or patient enough to do well, which meant that I needed to dive in and understand how quilts are constructed. Quilts are often precise in shape, and this is done through a paper piecing technique where the shape of the piece is cut out of paper and then the fabric is wrapped around the paper and tacked together. Each piece is then sewn to the next. Understanding the construction led to a change in the way I worked. To get the precision, I use the same paper piecing method, just with glue, paper, and tape. By using this method and not just gluing the pieces to a board, the finished piece has movement and dimension, like a real quilt or tapestry.