Both my mother and my father taught me to live creatively. In a photograph, at age three or four, I’m wearing overalls playing with a dump truck. Most young girls in the early 1950’s were playing with dolls. I wasn’t. This continued as my mother taught me to bake, to sew, to knit, and encouraged me to read. My father exposed me to different cultures, to opera and other music, and to magnificent art in museums around the world. He also encouraged me to read. After reading and listening to reviews of restaurants in guidebooks, my sister and I, at about aged ten, embarked on a project to research the best Italian Ice in Venice, Italy, in order to write a guide.

I’ve been involved in textiles most of my life. By the time I was a teenager, I was hand weaving. Later, I designed and wove upholstery fabric for a furniture company and created tapestries and wall art. I won awards for these pieces. Hand weaving continued as an avocation during thirty years of teaching. Throughout these years, I also created batik and marbling projects. Spinning yarns for knitting and weaving projects continues to this day.

Painting on silk and making one-of-a-kind and limited edition clothing was my second career. I participated in juried art shows on the southeast coast for four years. This was the beginning of my attraction to working on three-dimensional projects.

Now, in Santa Fe, New Mexico, I create sculpture with fibers, mostly hand painted and hand-dyed silks, precious metals, and stone. Some fibers are shaped by a Japanese technique called shibori.