All of my life I have had the privilege of being an artist. Creating has brought me much joy and amusement, allowing me to deal with life as a positive experience. My love has been to create whimsical figures, baskets, weavings, and faces by using mixed media to achieve a sense of joy and laughter. I have been lucky to have been able to teach my craft and to have been featured in many articles and on the front covers of many fiber magazines during my career. I have loved hearing people’s comments at exhibitions because my work made them smile.

This is the beginning of another journey called “Wallflower Series.” These faces are done in relief and placed in shadow boxes for display. I am not sure how many faces will be in this series, but I am currently working on the fourth as I write. I have created note cards and pillows from these designs, so far. ENJOY!

One day I was looking through family photos, and I ran across a photo of my grandmother, Minnie Swanson. I was very close to my grandmother and when I was in college I would drive to San Francisco on weekends and she and I would have fun going all over the place, laughing, going to Macy’s bargain basement, eating at fun places like the Fisherman’s Warf, or riding the trolly car. She was one of the first women to own an apartment building in San Francisco. I always wondered why I used pearls and flowers in my drawings and mixed media artwork to create certain effects. When I looked at her photo, I realized that I was patterning my designs after the love I had for her. She was a very classy women!