My work is a continuous adventure. Working with fabric to create my art seems to be so natural to me: I don't even question it. It is an extension of my being and the education that I received from the women in my family. Having developed a collage construction process, I can focus clearly on the concepts and the images that energize and inspire me.

There are three themes that interact and appear in most of my work: a reverence for nature, positive human spirit, and the concept of house and home (the house or shrine shape that occurs in much of my work) as safety and love and strength.

The processes involved in most of my work include painting and printing on fabrics with fiber reactive dyes and textile paints, cutting, piecing, appliqué, collage, quilting, and embellishing. Intuition plays a strong part in the process of building my art quilts. Painting, collage, and embellishing are equally important: together they form a unified whole. Visual or actual references to traditional quilt making often appear in my work to honor the women and the history of this medium.

I have been devoting my time to creating art quilts and mixed media environments since 1987, after sixteen years as an art teacher in the public schools.

My work has appeared in many juried exhibitions, including Quilted Constructions: the Spirit of Design (at the American Folk Art Museum, New York City), Quilt National and Visions (Quilt San Diego). I have also shown works in a number of invitational exhibitions throughout the nation and overseas, including the Full Deck Art Quilts project and Women of Taste: Artists and Chefs Collaborative.

My commissioned work includes both private and public projects, notably several One Percent for Art commissions in Maine.

I continue to teach workshops in my home studio, at quilt conferences and at art schools including Haystack Mountain School of Crafts, Deer Isle, Maine.

Two of my pieces are in the permanent collections of major national museums: the Renwick Gallery of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC, and the Museum of Arts and Design, New York City.

Lately, I have been designing and making functional art items for sale in my studio. They include painted canvas bags, painted art pillows, various styles of necklaces and earrings, needle cases, and some delightful “Garden Girls” (scarecrows). I see this work as my “part time” job and I love it! It allows me to paint, design, stitch, and create lovely and useful things for people to enjoy.

I don't think I shall ever retire!