| Statement: Growing up on a farm, I have a firm sense of the importance of place and being. I am constantly inspired by the landscapes of western Massachusetts where I live and the memories of the farm I grew up on. The creation of a perceived color and the wide variety of colors that are incorporated within this color creates the feeling. I use simple blocks in a variety of patterns to create a story. The intensity of the labor required to make these quilts, the repetition of the blocks and the wide variety of fabrics required to achieve these color incorporate the memories of process and the importance of the human effort. My history: I have been supporting myself for more than  twenty-six years making quilts. A show of my work was at the Springfield Museum of Fine Arts, Springfield, MA in 2007. In 2006 I received an Award of Excellence from the American Craft Council at the Baltimore Fine Craft Show. My work is in the permanent collections of the American Museum of Art + Design, The People’s Place Quilt Museum, Pat Metheny, and the Lodge at Turning Stone. I have received grants from NEA(NEfFA) and the Massachusetts Artists Foundation. My work has appeared in numerous juried exhibitions including Quilt National 1993 and 1991. I am currently working on a series of quilts for the Art in Architecture program of the General Services AdministrationTechnique: My technique is actually very simple. I use a method I call "quilt-as-you-go" where I have the back, a layer of batting and then piece the thin strips of fabric together sewing onto the back. This gives me the intense quilting of traditional quilts while letting the variety of fabrics resonate on the front. I join the backs together and hand finish all the bindings. I wrote about this method for Threads, in September 1999. |
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