Artist's Statement 2006
I knew I was an artist the day I could not do anything else. I tried very hard not to be an artist. However, the day came over 30 years ago when, as the energy of the Women’s Liberation Movement drove cultural change, I decided to follow the call of a wild and untamed heart and declared myself a true woman of the cloth. I specifically chose fiber as my medium because of its long history of association with woman’s work. I have a lot to say and I choose to say it with cloth.
I almost always work in a series, several pieces around a single theme. Today
I explore topics that have moved away from the feminist perspective of my younger
self to areas of interest such as, quantum physics, sacred space, passages of
the seen and unseen, and currently, the idea of separation. I ask, Are we ever
really separated or is it just a place in the mind, a perception? I dance with
my blank white cloth quite literally. I hope to, and most often do, engage a
creative process that surprises me. I dye, silk screen and stamp cotton, silk
and rayon, using Procion MX dyes, as well as create digital inkjet images on
the cloth. I intentionally create complex patterns in order to engage viewers
long enough, draw them into a piece so they might personally experience the
awesome art making process.
Basic shapes, abstract ideas and color intrigue me. There is the line. It bends
into a circle, square or triangle. All design emanates from this. All color
is red, yellow or blue. Color predominantly is what inspires a piece, breathing
out of every stitch and weave. It is how I say what I say. Will red say it better
than blue? And by the way, what shape IS blue?
Many of the art quilts in this exhibition, 40 Years of Separation, refer to
my life in Royal Oak, Michigan and our cramped bungalow quarters, post World
War II. I remember trying to be an individual when all about me looked and was
the same. Others are from a series entitled Passages: Inside and Out. They are
a response to a physical and emotional journey wherein I dragged myself yet
again over hill and dale to another sacred place.
It is not enough for me to think on things. I must make something physical out
of my emotional response to life’s grand adventure. And so I have. Making
art is the window I look into and out of that gives me purpose and direction.
Amazing life is my motivation for making art, and making art is my way.