Creating form that could carry such sumptuous surfaces was a stimulating challenge. It was the familiar conflict between form and surface that gave rise to a three-year exploration of the Japanese Inro, a wearable box whose top is ingeniously held in place by the hanging cord.

For a while silk screening with dye and Lumiere paint on silk became a focus in my work. I discovered that shaving cream made the dye thick enough to be screened onto silk.

An offshoot of my experiments with dye was speckled dyed polymer clay beads reminiscent of bird’s eggs.

However it was the vibrant color of dye on silk and the subtle play of layered images that brought about a new way of thinking for me.

I had learned much about surface texture from working with polymer clay and much about the manipulation of images from silk screening on silk, but it wasn’t until I worked with Dayle Doroshow, mixed media artist, at La Cascade that my years of experience with painting, polymer clay and more recently silk-screening came together. My greatest self realization was that I’m happiest when I have several mediums at hand to dialogue with.

Mixed media suits my table-hopping approach to life.

An appetite for fresh experience and the need to keep moving take me places I would never have imagined beforehand. Because I find the unknown tempting, I’m often drawn to projects that have no predictable outcome, like buying a 300 year old house in France to convert into a retreat for creative workshops. I’m amazed by how it all seems to come together in the end, much like a collage.