Artist Statement
I credit my grandmothers with seeding my interest in textile art. My mother’s mother, a skilled needle woman, taught me to sew, embroider and crochet, while my father’s mother, a visual artist, encouraged my drawing and painting. Over the years, I continued to enjoy sewing clothing and taking classes in a variety of visual arts. My first encounter with fibre art, specifically free-motion embroidery or thread painting, occurred on a rural studio tour and it resonated immediately. Knowing I had to try it, I signed up for a course at St. Lawrence College and within a few sessions knew I’d found “my thing”, which happily, utilized the drawing, painting, sewing and quilting techniques (and accumulated materials) I’d been playing with for years.
Fast forward to the 2020s and I’m still hooked! I create wall hangings and decorative objects using a combination of techniques – layering and fusing fabric, hand-dyeing, drawing and painting, free-motion stitching, hand embroidering, and embellishing with beads and found objects. I’m drawn to my immediate environment, particularly wild, natural landscapes like those around the Canadian Shield where I live, but also man-made spaces, especially the unique, colourful or quirky. In my art, I seek to capture the beauty and the colours, textures, impressions, and moods of those special places that move me.
