I love exploring locally, taking day trips and documenting what I see with my digital camera. Some of my photos stand on their own as art, and others provide me with reference material for working in the other mediums I enjoy. I love that there is no longer any cost involved to develop the film!
In 2004, we moved from my “roots” in the central NJ/Bucks County, PA area, to the incredibly hilly and scenic upstate NY Finger Lakes region. where we spent our next 8 yrs. In the Fall of 2012, we had to relocate to the awesome Berkshire Mountains in Western Massachusetts. The areas in NJ and PA where I spent most of my life are rich in early American history, and the scenery is inspiring to me – the architecture of old stone houses from the 18th and 19th centuries and Victorian homes, Philadelphia cityscapes, rolling hills of farmland, scenic twisting and turning Delaware River drives, river towns full of cafes, art galleries, and quaint gardens (including our own), that were, and are, home to many Bucks County impressionists and artists – all of these find their way into my art. The Berkshires are home to many equally historic sites and I am looking forward to exploring them when the weather warms up!
Sadly this landscape is vanishing rapidly in some areas. My artwork tends to create a tangible trail of my explorations, and I enjoy recording small segments and closeups of what I see – an old window with wavy glass and colored shutters, a closeup of an unusual piece of Victorian gingerbread on a porch, the pattern of the veins on a leaf – as well as wider angle landscapes.
All elements of design appeal to me, including color, texture and line, and the play of light.
Creating art quilts is a medium I began exploring in 2000. I consider contemporary art quilting to be a method of “creating paintings with a fabric palette.” The wide variety of “painterly” fabrics available, such as the batiks and hand-dyes, helps provide me with a wonderful palette. You can create layers of color and add sparks of light just as you would in a painting. There’s a challenge in creating a piece of art with only commercially available fabrics, but if I can’t find fabric to fit my needs, I paint my own with textile paints and acrylics. After the initial design is completed, I quilt the piece using a variety of colored threads to add another layer of color, texture and design to the piece. I also occasionally include my photographs in my work by printing them directly onto fabric, as well as incorporating my hand-dyed fabric into my pieces.
