It is an ever-fascinating challenge to interpret my sense of nature in my studio. I work to explore exaggerated insects and the abstracted quintessential flower bud. I love making unique fabric, using pressed flowers and leaves as templates in the fabric. Every day in the studio I seek to express my vision of the natural world around me.

As a life-long biologist and Master Gardener, I thought I saw nature. But it wasn’t until I embraced my artful journey that I began to really see. The whorls of snail shells, the miniature worlds of mosses and lichens, the rugged nooks and crannies of the bark of the fallen tree, and the intricate nuanced shading of the early spring wildflowers offer endless inspiration. 

Fifteen years ago, I left my college professorship and dedicated myself to an artist’s life, focusing on textiles. My art quilts have been juried into many of the most prestigious quilt shows in the U.S., including several years as a finalist at the International Quilt Show in Houston. I was also a finalist in the “$100,000 Quilt Challenge” in 2007. I tell my nature-based stories using various techniques such as hand-dyeing, discharge, painting on fabric, hand-stitching, and embroidery, and the use of a variety of fabrics and threads. My goal is to achieve images of fantastical realism and to translate my garden inspirations into cloth with my large-scale pieces. I’ve studied photography, drawing, and painting to learn design principles and to challenge myself to give life to my own language of nature.

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