Artist Statement
A few years ago I discovered a large, undulating copper and shale slab in the National Natural History Museum on the mall in Washington, DC. It is a very graphic example of the beauty and power of water. As the earth containing the copper cooled, water ran along its surfaces and left impressions. This discovery at the museum combined with stories of friends finding an ancient mosaic beneath the sea were a big influence. These two experiences set me on a path of water patterns, places, feelings and expressions.
In nature perhaps nothing is as paradoxical in its qualities and in our reactions to it as water. It falls from above, it springs from below; it's hot and it's cold; we love it and we fear it. Growing up in the land-locked middle of the country and then living on the coast and on an island with my husband, a naval officer, has given me a love of the sea and a fear of it as well. Whether calm or turbulent it has great power, beauty and mystery. Combining the tactile medium of fiber embroidery with the perceived rigidity of the copper creates an environment that is similar to the contrasts of nature. To bring these contrasts to life in my meditations on the sea, I use a dye process on the organza to print patterns and often folds are heat set into the organza. In addition I use copper foil, gold and copper leaf and paint on paper. These are layered and stitched by hand or with a hand guided free-motion embroidery on the machine.
My mixed media works are about traces of past and future, about layers of meaning as well as layers of materials. They are about time and place, nature and our interconnected role. Water's edge to water's depths are my time and place.