About the Artist

Welcome to my site.  I am a craftsperson and fiber artist, a child of the 60's who has lived at various times in the San Franciso Bay area, Hawaii, and the Pacific Northwest.  For over twenty years I have been making contemporary art doll figures from natural materials, found objects and cloth.  As I sit with my stash of sticks and bark, fabric, beads and bits, and begin to create each doll, I sense a story, a conversation, a kind of wisdom coming through the process.

 

Throughout human history, people have made small replicas of the human form - out of wood, animal skin, corn husks, fabric, clay, porcelain, even just a stick wrapped in a piece of cloth.  Most often seen in modern times as children's playthings, over the centuries and in different cultures, dolls were used as religious symbols, fertility charms, teaching tools for gender roles, and folk art wares.

 

Contemporary artists have developed an interest in dolls as an art form.  These "art dolls" might be made of textiles, metal, polymer clay, or found and repurposed materials.  Art dolls exhibit a remarkable diversity of style and appearance. They can be wimsical, primitive, refined, or spiritual figures, or anything in between.

 

I believe dolls are a connection to intuition, to an inner voice, an inner spirit.  I also feel they are a connection to something larger - to ancient cultures and the ancient stories of the collective unconscious.  While I am making a doll, I feel a connection to my intuition and to a vast, universal pool of myth and creativity, and it is such a resonant place to be.

 

These figures embody these connections.  They often seem to dance on the wall.  I invite you to sense their spirits, to hear their stories.