photo credit: Passia Pandora
I am a visual artist who works in embroidery employing glazing, layering, tonal and colour techniques from traditional painting and drawing. I have a BFA from the University of Manitoba and have exhibited work both as a drawer and painter and as an artist working in textiles in many locations in Canada.
I have received several grants to aid in the creation of work the most recent being a Visual Arts Grant from the BC Arts Council in 2005 for the embroidery project She Breaks Down.
I won the Wearable Arts Award in fall 2006 in two categories for the crow costume From the Ashes.
I have worked on numerous collaborations and my collaboration with the writer Elizabeth Dancoes resulted in a web site at www.liftingourskirts.com and an embroidered, illustrated story called Lunch. We are in the process of continuing this work for an exhbit to take place at the Seymour Art Gallery in Deep Cove in 2010.
I work almost exclusively with the figure. Currently I am exploring facial expressions and intuitive portraits in a combination of dyes and embroidery worked almost as dialogue one act/technique responding to the next. My work always has an emotional component. I strive to understand human emotion, solitude and relatedness and opposites of character through the creation of my art whether embroidery or painting.
Teaching is an essential part of my creative life. Currently I teach design in the Textile Arts Program at Capilano University, textile printing at Emily Carr University of Art and Design and surface design in the Fashion Design Program at the University of the Fraser Valley.