ARTIST STATEMENT

I am so inspired by relationships. Relationships with objects, with nature, and with other people.  The way that life interacts, ebbs, flows, and blends.  We have very little control over our world. The sooner we learn what we can and cannot have power over, the better off we are.  So much of our lives is spent reacting to forces beyond our control. We exist in a perpetual cycle of reacting, processing, accepting, and moving forward.

“Never put yourself in a position to be dependent on someone else.”

I was raised with this idea of self-reliance.  Being self-sufficient was a mandate.  I have had times of abundance and times of great scarcity.  During my early years of motherhood, when I needed to utilize Section 8 Housing, the guilt I felt was immense. I felt ashamed to need assistance. I was determined to create as much for myself as possible, to compensate for the living assistance I was receiving. I had a patio garden to supplement food during the appropriate seasons.  Painting had always been my main medium, and I had to set it aside to an extent and leaned more heavily on my sewing skills to exercise my need to create. I would thrift, recycle fabrics, and other supplies so that I could make art. Those two passions evolved into making my own paint with local, natural pigments, and creating pieces using foraged and recycled materials.

Now, a few children later, I love to hike, or walk, with my family and collect materials for art making. I love to dry flowers, to weave with vines, and to grind pigments for paint making. I also love to just paint or sew. I’m coming into a place now where I no longer feel a need to label myself as a painter, a natural artist, or a fiber artist. I am so inspired by the people around me, the relationships we create, and how we all grow mentally and emotionally as life just happens to us. I love to create, in whatever way I am able.

I am a maker.