For the last two decades, my focus as an artist has been not only to grow my tapestry techniques but expand my research of this craft and the issues I've felt compelled to cover. I have attempted to create work that exudes a sense of movement, vibrance, and familiarity, particularly as it depicts urban life in over-populated urban environments. Although my work has addressed relevant global and local topics, I have always, in different ways, referenced my East Bay and San Francisco origins. My translations in tapestry have all been informed by those complex, beautiful, and fast-changing environments.
My practice has been to record urban narratives through woven and shaped, mixed-media tapestries, and create them on large 4-harness floor looms. The visual translation of thought and memory, on and off the woven grid, helps usher in a renegotiation of my past and has become the rawest and most intuitive voice I've ever had. I was self-taught before YouTube and knew very few rules when I began. I’ve learned through trial and error and that allowed me the freedom to absorb techniques by movement, develop muscle memory, learn to just “eye-it” without the help of a cartoon behind my warp to aid my weaving. I shape my work the way I envision it and often pull my warp and create slit work that disjoints the surface throughout most of my tapestry’s landscapes. I use hand-dyed natural materials like wool, silk, cotton, and linen because of their luster and ability to absorb dyes. I’ll also find and/or source and incorporate unconventional, manufactured, and re-used/re-purposed/recycled materials because we live in an even more plastic world than we did yesterday.