Biography:
My focus has been the human figure in sculptural fabric
form since 1986, using this form as my canvas. Having never played with dolls as a child (I only made
clothes for them), as an adult I now play endlessly with fabric and needle, and
call these textile figures ?dolls.?
I view dollmaking as a very personal statement of the world in which I
live, my past and future experiences, and how I perceive them and react to
them. I attempt to translate my
love of textiles into a simplified figure, whether it is nude or heavily
adorned. I strive to create pieces
that are contemplative in feeling and visually enticing, using layers of
fabrics, detailed faces and organic forms. I feel that the individual pieces are as luxuriously
seductive when held as they are visually strong.
Organic forms have enthralled me forever: leaves, flowers, petals, stamens,
roots, tiny spring shoots, dragonflies, vines, bees, the sky, sunshine, clouds,
anything wild.
Printing and painting my own fabric since the mid-1990s,
manipulating it, and adding embroidery to my painted fabric has heightened my
awareness of the flat surface becoming three-dimensional. Hand embroidery, now often called ?the
stitched mark? because of its personal language of stitches that it creates for
the artist, I did as a child and am glad to be coming full circle. Free-form machine embroidery
complements the slow work of hand embroidery with a physical and visual look
that?s enthralling.
This focus has intensified with the study of related
techniques, such as printed and painted surfaces, photo transfer to fabric and
plastic, fabric piecing and manipulation, embellishment through
beading/embroidery, hand and free-form machine embroidery, wet and needle
felting, needle-sculpted fabric faces, and articulated hands. I continue to study, experiment and be
enthralled with textiles in all their varied forms in order to express my place
in the world. Self-portraits have
also become increasingly important as a vehicle to express the comical and
tragic side of my life.
