Line and metaphor are the elements of the stories that I tell. I lean toward the narrative, hoping to express universality in what is essentially personal. I am a visual storyteller.
My preferred medium is textiles; drawing on linen, silk and/or wool, and stitching over all. I also enjoy working on birch panels with line and oil wash or on a clay-board surface with markers and fine pens. I work in line; both physical (drawing and stitching) and abstract (the linear aspect of story), and family history (lineage). I am interested in connections between meta and corporeal, making thought visual. As a mark-maker I am defining and recording who I am and my connection with the past. My most recent work has been in recreating family history – creating myth from the bits and bobs of oral history given to me by my ancestors. Using bird imagery as metaphor, I embellish and conflate family histories.
When not in my studio, I work at Goodwill Art Studio and Gallery, creating art with adults with disabilities. Also, I am an Ohio Arts Council residency artist, traveling around the state sharing my love of narrative quilts with schoolchildren of all ages.
Awards
2015 Ohio Arts Council Individual Artist Fellowship
2015 Residency- Project Ability, Glasgow, Scotland
2012 Challenge Award for Excellence- Ohio Designer Craftsmen
2011 Residency- ARNA- Sweden
2017 Wisconsin Quilt and Fiber Art Museum, Cedarburg, Wisconsin (proposed)
2017 European Patchwork Festival, St. Marie-aux-Mines, France (proposed)
2017 Quilt National ’17, Athens, Ohio
2016 National Quilt Museum, Paducah, Kentucky
2016 Art Quilts of the Midwest, International Quilt Study Center, Lincoln, Nebraska
2016 Stauth Memorial Museum, Montezuma, Kansas
2016 Summit County Historical Society, Akron, Ohio
2015 European Patchwork Festival, St. Marie-aux-Mines, France
2015 Quilt National ‘15, Athens, Ohio
2015 Columbus Cultural Arts Center-In Close Proximity with Debbie Griffing and Cody Miller
2015 Covenant Church, Upper Arlington, Ohio
2014 The Kendal Center, Granville, Ohio
2014 Quilt National Traveling Exhibition
- Riffe Gallery Columbus, Ohio
- Oceanside Museum of Art, Oceanside, California
- St. Louis University Museum of Art, St. Louis, MO
2014 Southern Ohio Museum of Art, Portsmouth, Ohio
2013 Quilt National ’13, Athens, Ohio
2012 Ohio Designer Craftsmen, Best 2012, Challenge Award for Excellence
A Keeper of Secrets and Parakeets
A Keeper of Secrets and Parakeets – detail
Bernadette in Artichokes
The Closing of the Calumet and Hecla Mine
The Closing of the Calumet and Hecla Mine – detail
