Artist Statement

With all due respect to science and the wonderful things it has accomplished, I often wonder about humans and how they presume to think they can figure out the universe, the world and how/why all that is in it exists. Can we see beauty in the world and be in awe of all that exists? In experiencing my collages, I hope people will find beauty and think more deeply about the human role and their effect on the world and each other by creating unusual interactions/relationships with unexpected juxtapositions of images using my unique assembly technique. I hope to open new perspectives and appreciation for beauty, the environment, life, humor and relationships. Please look deeply and enjoy, there are always surprises to be found.

Biography

I have always been creative in one way or another, knitting, crocheting, painting, solving problems and meeting life’s challenges.

I started making collages by accident in a way. There were years in the 1990’s when I used and saved wolf calendars because I had an affinity for and identified with them. They are community/family oriented, they faithful and loving towards their pack, are misunderstood and persecuted. Coming across these calendars during a “purge” I wasn’t sure what I was going to do with them when an unexplainable idea came to me to cut (and tear some) the images out and assemble them in a way that was meaningful to me. I actually sat on the floor spreading them out when I first began, very primal in a way. 

I have since moved from the floor to tables and have made collages using varied sources of nature, inspired by particular images, color, pattern and texture.  My belated textile design education served me well as everything came together when I began cutting images from the public domain, calendars, magazines, books and catalogues and began putting them together in ways that reminded me of doing puzzles, weaving and knitting, as well as reflecting my love of color and pattern. In combination with my love of lace, animals and all of nature, I began a unique process for making collages that I found very satisfying because it tapped into my creativity in a way that nothing else had up until then.