​Clay and Cloth

I don't remember falling in love with making things. It might be inherently in my blood.  I've been sewing with my Mother since age 3, and was always fascinated with mudpies and messes. My first Ceramics class was a gift from my mother at 17 years old.  It was instant infatuation, which has never abated.

 

At 20, I began to study at the Alberta College of Art and Design in Calgary (now Alberta University of Art and Design AUAD). I followed my passions together, majoring in Ceramics and minoring in Fibre arts.  Four years later I emerged exhausted and excited, and am now a loving, determined maker.

 

I come from a strong small family of determined women who find great joy in making things with their hands. The sense of purpose that comes from a hand-built thing is immeasurable. When I was younger, I always thought that things had to have a purpose. Now that I am getting older I am learning that the purpose might be simply to share  enjoyment. 

 

Currently, my making style has transformed into a playful sculptural method of making, including a lot of aspects from my new home in rural British Columbia. Sculptures and functional pieces alike are a mixture of wilderness, playful storytelling, and fantastical imagery. The combination creates a colorful village of immersive and interactive elements. 

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When I work with fabric, I tend towards highlighting fabrics using color as borders enhancing the fabrics instead of the quilt pattern. By working around a given fabric itself to enhance its beauty, the quilt takes on a life of its own, much like how it claims its final destination. Most are given, and few are sold. There is as much love in the giving as there is in the making.  Quilts become stories, and then when they are passed along, they gain a life of their own history.