Statement for Full Circle, a 3 person show during fall 2025 at Grimshaw-Gudewicz Art Gallery in Fall River, MA

I draw with my sewing machine. Fabric serves as paper, and the threaded needle as pencil. Batting between the layers of fabric adds a sculptural effect. Valleys follow the lines of thread, and hills between cast shadows.

I have always been fascinated by the sun, moon and sky, by trees, landscapes and animals, and I explore those themes in my work. A simple circle represents moon or sun. Circles can also be formed from many intricately quilted parts: monsters, hands, more circles. Lately, the creatures have become a kind of journal. Some show scenes from my day or my inner life. I don’t, however, control them. They are a collaboration with thread and fabric and often have expressions that surprise me.

My first creature quilt, made around 2001, started with fish monsters in the center. I soon realized that they needed a boundary, and outlined a simple rayed sun to contain them. They captured my imagination as I worked and watched them evolve. I have never stopped delighting in them. This year I made my first eclipse quilt. Dark creatures form the new moon, while bright beings leap from behind to depict the sun’s corona.

As you can see, my journey as an artist is not a line, but is more like a circle.

Statement for Copse, an exhibit during February 2024 at AS220 Gallery in Providence, RI

Trees are a lifelong obsession for me, a source of delight, and a frequent theme in my work. I think about how a living tree grows while one materializes in the fabric. Many of my trees are more an idea of a tree than a real species. Some images represent an actual tree that I know. In 'Dawn Redwood Forest', for example, I portray one favorite tree multiple times, imagining a forest out of its singular magnificence.

When I quilt a tree, a whole ecosystem emerges with it. I populate this constructed world with creatures; I call them 'monsters'. They observe, reveal, act and interact. They are also surprisingly expressive and emotional. While the trees are large and easy to see, please come very close to get to know the monsters too.