Artist Statement

  My art installations are a collaboration with nature. I work with the seasons and it starts in the winter, when I gather the materials for the frames of my pieces. Along with carding wool, I gather both wild concord and cultivated muscadine grapevines. I find the textured branches of trees and shrubs along with the smooth sides of bamboo and corn stalks create a great frame as well. The busy season at my families vegetable and flower farm in Cedar Grove has given me lots of opportunity to gather the seeds, flowers and leaves I want to dry and use in my pieces. The seasons of spring, summer and fall go by swiftly and the boxes fill with the material I will use in the installations. The rich colors of the earth from red clay to dark sandy loam are colors for my paintbrush and designs. The gathering of feathers, shells and other natural shapes completes my inventory.  As fall descends with shortened days and the last of the warmth letting go with the falling leaves, I am ready to unpack the boxes of my harvest and put together the designs that have been coalescing through the growing season. The lessons of the season show up in the pieces as the earth gives voice to her abundant creation.

      I sometimes collaborate with the environment and use hangings, weavings and pieces in sheltered areas or in gardens, letting the weather shape and form them. I also find indoor spaces, square and empty, a great place to infuse the rich softness and roundness of the living earth on the floor, in corners and on the clear palettes of the walls. As wall hanging over fireplace, desk or doorway, each grapevine structure holds the seasons. Each piece has a specific focus and the earth’s voice gives depth to its meaning. I enjoy both the educational as well as art aspect of my work.

     I use natural materials such as fibers, vines, flowers, seeds and soil from the earth to create images of the dance between humans and the natural world. I am a somatic and bodywork therapist, teacher, artist and writer. I live with my husband on our farm Maple Spring Gardens in Cedar Grove, NC.

Exhibition History

1.     Blessings of the Goddess, in the show Art and the Feminine Divine, 4/21-5/14, 2006, Durham, NC. Woven piece with dried flowers, feathers, wool, red and black earth, shells and seeds

2.     9 Principles of Spirit, art works in a sacred garden at my Farm in Cedar Grove, NC, 3/24-3/25,2007. I had 11 pieces, along with 20 other pieces from 10 artists.  My pieces included grapevines, dried flowers, seeds and shells, hand dyed cloth, red and black earth, sand and cornmeal,

3.     The Myth of Hierarchy, solo show at the Driade, Chapel Hill, NC, November, 2008, including pieces of spun wool, grapevines, dried flowers and seeds, feathers and red and black earth, sand and cornmeal. Inside and outside installations.

4.     The Diversity of Grain, piece in the Weaver Street, Farm ArtShow, Carrboro, NC, March-April 2009, piece of seeds, bamboo and feathers

5.     The Seed Gatherer, piece in Hillsborough Arts Council nature art show, 2013. Piece of dried flowers and herbs, grains, seeds, feathers, dried corn, wool.

6. Reseeding the Future, fall show Hillsborough Arts Council, 10/19, included 7 pieces of grapevines, dried flowers, herbs and seeds, feathers, carded wool.