Visual artist. EXPERIMENTALIST. environmental activist.
art educator. published writer/illustrator.
MFA, BFA, and B.eD.
“Impactful experiences as a child that include deafness, riding the “It’s A Small World” ride at Disneyland at age 5, creating furniture pieces, crowns and jewelry at my dad’s electrical shop, and having teddy bear teas under a weeping willow tree shaped my early creative life. A quest to draw the public in for a closer look led me to make intriguing, tactile pieces, installations that are hyper-Utopian, enveloping experiences, and to instigate human interaction between viewers and I through touch .
A growing concern about the environment informs most of my recent works. Drawing from my Canadian upbringing and ongoing environmental activism, I invite viewers to reconsider their place within the natural world and the consequences of human actions on climate change.
To bring these works to fruition, I unabashedly experiment. I transform everyday materials we consume and dispose that reframe our relationship to waste, re-think age-old fiber art/art techniques in new ways, and transform new materials in ways not originally intended. My preferred techniques include free motion stitching — otherwise known as machine embroidery, a method of "painting" and building texture with thread on a sewing machine — as well as manipulating a fascinating material called Fosshape®, repurposing vintage textiles, and I also sew, dye, paint, burn, melt, hand embroider, 3D print, laser cut/engrave, cast, build and assemble.”
Art is exploration: expressing ourselves in ever-changing ways, because we are ever-changing, dynamic beings.
BIO:
