Art practice has always been an important part of my life. It has shifted and changed its form from adolescent to adult but it has always been present. The act of making art brings joy and balance to my very full and busy life. With the world becoming more and more focused on technology, often times pulling us away from the outdoors, creating unique textiles is my way of staying connected to nature - keeping me linked to the land and earth around me. I rely heavily on the environment for inspiration, material, and color.
The materials found in my work come directly from the land in their natural form. I work with wool and alpaca fibers as they are the most responsive to natural dyes. Those fibers are hand spun into yarn then dyed through a time intensive process of soaking and heating the natural dye source. This includes plant or insect material that I have gathered from my surrounding environment such as leaves, roots, bark, berries, or nuts whether from local harvesting or traveling. The earth tone colors extracted through this process are used to create the colors connecting my art to my life experiences.
As it is with Mother Nature, the creation of my textiles are a product of time. Although my work is both time and labor intensive, I choose to start with the natural material to emphasize the process of creation just as it takes the earth time to create the beauty of a canyon or forest.
The materials found in my work come directly from the land in their natural form. I work with wool and alpaca fibers as they are the most responsive to natural dyes. Those fibers are hand spun into yarn then dyed through a time intensive process of soaking and heating the natural dye source. This includes plant or insect material that I have gathered from my surrounding environment such as leaves, roots, bark, berries, or nuts whether from local harvesting or traveling. The earth tone colors extracted through this process are used to create the colors connecting my art to my life experiences.
As it is with Mother Nature, the creation of my textiles are a product of time. Although my work is both time and labor intensive, I choose to start with the natural material to emphasize the process of creation just as it takes the earth time to create the beauty of a canyon or forest.