About

the silver minnow

Natural forms draw me in on daily walks around the small lake near my home. I am captivated by the patterns and cycles I observe in plants, water, birds and seasons. These familiar landscapes, as well as the interior terrain of thought, memory and imagination inspire my work. Poetry often helps me to navigate between the inner and outer spaces.

Working with dyes, pigments, rice paste and other resists, I develop my images through repeated cycles of dyeing, blocking out, adding and removing color. I incorporate techniques including painting, screen-printing, block printing, stenciling, piecing and simple stitching.

Early in 2009 I began to focus on katazome (stencil dyeing), a traditional Japanese surface design tradition, which I was introduced to in 2004 through a workshop with John Marshall. Katazome involves printing with rice paste resist through a hand-cut stencil, and coloring the work with natural pigment dyes, which are mixed in a soybean milk binder. The process, tools, materials and results of this craft feel like a homecoming to me.

With all my work, there are periods of waiting due to the requirements of the materials. This rhythm draws me deeper into the work. I find myself contemplating the idea of time, as measured in natural cycles, including my own experience.