She entered the world just before Christmas in 1947, as Syracuse, NY experienced exceptionally cold weather. Warm, well cared for, and wanting for nothing, she was lovingly spoiled by her mother, father, grandfather, and uncle. Six years later, three sisters arrived about a year apart.
Before the sisters arrived, as an unattended tiny artist with a nail polish project, the bathroom quickly dissolved into glorious abstract expression. At seven, she was chosen from her first grade class to draw a gingerbread man on TV. Ballet combined music, costumes, color, and movement—an early immersion into interdisciplinary arts.
Eventually came the "very good girl" path of marriage and motherhood, followed by an intellectual awakening through Women's Studies at exactly the moment when those ideas were crystallizing in the early '70s. The pivot to hippie, lesbian, pothead led most importantly to recovery and a new foundation for creative life.
In the late '70s, with basic sewing skills under her belt, she took a quilting class in Half Moon Bay, California. The traditional quilting scene was rapidly transforming, offering up innovative teachers, techniques, styles, and permission to strike out with one's own vision. She quickly jumped away from the traditional block, inspired by the new wave of art quilting exploding across the country. The Bay Area was a rich source of ideas, teachers, and materials.
Sharing this creative journey with her sister Allison Stilwell led to many years of individual and collaborative work. Known as the Weird Sisters, they developed "Artgirlz," creating kits for the wholesale craft industry that included handmade papers, wool felt shapes, rubber stamps, and pewter charms. They exhibited and taught both nationally and internationally, and their work appeared in numerous publications, including Cloth Paper Scissors, Quilting Arts, and Art Doll Quarterly.
The loss of her sister in 2014 left a gash in her creative momentum and eventually led to the study of painting. Primarily self-taught, she exchanged fabric, needles and threads for wood, canvas and brushes. Still on the wide path of learning, she is exploring color, value, texture, materials, politics, botanicals, marketing and self-acceptance. At the heart of her work is a philosophy of freedom and openness. She practices an approach to both art and life with a spirit of play: downplaying worry, judgment, and fear of mistakes. Creating is just a way of life and she cherishes her art tribe as a source of inspiration, information and support.
The art world is a very large and mysterious entity, so she is always on the lookout for a path that is slightly off center.
Statement
I am compelled to make things. At home and on the road, I always have projects underway. For many years I worked with fabric, needles, threads, and paint, creating non-traditional quilts and wall hangings. Dolls emerged from rope, wire, sticks, and fabric. I formed planters and spheres for the garden with cement. It has come to my attention that I am constantly looking for the next shiny object; the next thing to learn or try. Now my current challenge and goal is to focus on painting.
With that in mind, I've been working most recently with acrylics on wood and canvas. I often begin by incorporating layers of paper to build texture, then sand the surface and dig into the wood to add visual interest. My pieces develop organically, taking many twists and turns as they evolve.
Two distinct lines are emerging in my work. The first grew from my love of gardening—abstract pieces that blossomed into botanicals. Chalk lines over the abstract base allow the vessels, stems and birds to develop from additional layered backgrounds.
The second line, the loosely defined political paintings, start with the same materials and process, but are driven by urgent topics or concepts that have been gnawing at me for weeks or even years. There's deep satisfaction in releasing those feelings onto the surface and into the world.
Learning to paint is a massive task. There are so many topics, issues, approaches and details many of which have nothing to do with paint and brushes. It is challenging, frustrating, satisfying and rewarding. The best part is the endless road of learning.