Studio Insights
Using air dry clay in mixed media sculpture
In my visits to museums and art galleries I do more than admire the beauty of the art. I look closely at how the three dimensional works are made. That’s how I discovered stone clay.
Artists using maps to tell stories
Maps provide great source material for artists. Their visual imagery, full of lines, shapes, and colors is a great jumping off point. The geographic details of maps tell stories. Even the physical properties of maps can become the tangible media of artwork. Maps of...
Looking back at my eyeglasses-themed sculptures
I recently uncovered one of my earliest sculptures while doing some much-needed re-organizing. It’s a piece called Mountain View, the first in a series I made with eyeglasses shapes as the central design element. I made it in response to a call for entries to an exhibition whose theme was pastoral vision.
Knitting feathers for my bird sculptures
I’m a fiber artist, so I work with fiber: yarn, felt, fabric, paper. When I want to create the impression of feathers on my bird sculptures, I look to the textures in knitting.
Why birds are great subjects for art about the environment
“Where do you come up with ideas for your artwork?” is a common question people ask me. I pick up ideas from conversations, news stories, and observation of what’s happening around me. The germ of the idea for Shrill Call was a friend’s comment that shorebirds are losing their habitats at alarming rates.