sewing & weaving

I’ve been a stitcher since I was a child. I made clothes and housewares for Barbie. I stitched on my clothes as a young girl and I still do now almost daily.

My work is best described as intuitive or slow stitching…now a huge movement of people wanting to slow down all around the world.

I’ve recently started to weave in various forms.

I’ve been thinking about what the practice of stitching and now weaving means to me now. I looked through my photographs. I didn’t pay much attention to the work, I just noted how I felt.

I’ve never cared much about precision and those who know me would call this an understatement. I find irregularity far more interesting, more of a story there I guess. As I thought about why I’m so drawn to these processes…

something became very clear to me…

Stitching and weaving are meditation to me. Ancient arts that slow my monkey mind down and require presence. Thank you Little Lisa for starting to stitch long ago and continuing this process through all stages of life.

A very special thanks to a few influential stitchers in my life: Aunt Dorothy, Elizabeth Bunsen, and Maggie Pace.

Elizabeth Bunsen: https://www.instagram.com/elizabethbunsen/?hl=en

Maggie Pace: https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/sources/maggie-paces-pick-up-sticks/patterns.

ghosts & ruins…

The spark for this series was the moment I noticed that a photo of the stairwell in my home fit with an image from an abandoned farmhouse I shot in South Dakota a few years ago. Seeing the old and new images just hit me about the sense of time and place we all possess. One day perhaps our stairwell will be photographed as ruins.

The stories that ruins of all types whisper to me about history, humanity, grit, and heartache have sparked my interest and been a muse to me since I was a child.

I love the way you can feel the soul of old houses and the area surrounding the properties. I just had to put myself in these places again—PHOTOSHOP allowed me to make this happen.

My daughter, Willa’s photographic eye provided the theatrical images of me taken on Halloween in 2021. My costume goal was: the ghost of a silent film star. I’m not often wearing a gown, or pearls, and sipping champagne. Well, not nearly often enough actually.

Whoever she is, she’s got a story to tell, I just don’t know quite what it is yet.

ruins: the remains of something destroyed

—Merriam Webster

Thank you, photographers, Willa, Mana, and the people who once inhabited this beautiful South Dakota farmhouse. If only the walls could truly talk.

Don’t think about making art, just get it done. Let everyone else decide if it’s good or bad, whether they love it or hate it. While they are deciding, make even more art.  —Andy Warhol