A cell can be described as the functional unit of a larger whole.  I think about cells as an organizing device in many contexts, but the biological cell is a particular source of fascination for me.  These shapes live in my mind and are the building blocks of my world and art.
My education in biomedical science inspires artwork concerned with the human body and the microscopic universe.  I see a direct connection with the concept of quilt and the assembly of units whether in cells or fabric.

Medium: Dye and paint on silk, cotton, found fabrics, fused collage, monoprinted, machine quilted

Materials and Process

These fictional cell types are joyous, plump, and healthy, each in their own "Petri dish" enclosed in sashing.  I can’t help but think of a nucleus surrounded by cytoplasm when I see a double polka dot.  
These cells grew spontaneously and mainly from one woman's fabric collection, a dear, late seamstress (Frances Oliver, mother of quilt artist Barbara Oliver Hartman), who designed and sewed exquisite Western women’s fashion in the 1950’s—note trims and braids!

Medium: Dye on silk, cotton, found fabrics (including polyester, Lycra, linen, trims, braids), fused collage, machine quilted

Materials and Process

Over the years, I have approached the subject of motherhood in my work. One winter my two sons were quite young, they found a nest that had fallen from a tree in our yard.  I put the nest in my studio and soon my quilts became nests. 

I see an image of home and center in this series but others see hurricanes and galaxies.  

Medium: Dye and paint on silk, fused collage, monoprinted, machine quilted

Materials and Process

Collecting and recycling women’s fashion has been a part of my studio practice for over twenty years. 

I am strangely attracted to animal skin prints and the recurring popularity of these fashions both amuses and disturbs me.  It seems to be a primitive instinct—to clothe ourselves in these patterns as decoration, protection and camouflage.

Medium: Dye and paint on silk, cotton, found fabrics, fused collage, monoprinted, machine quilted

Materials and Process

In this series I compare my alternating feelings of competency and inadequacy about being a mother.  Now that my sons are grown, I hardly remember those years when they were tiny.  The day-to-day reality of it escapes me, and becomes more of a dream, a story that happened to another self. 
I worked on SINK OR SWIM, a total of 33 quilts, over a period of 10 years.   Other series began and ended during this time, but this idea persisted.
There were days I thought I was drowning, hours I was swimming, and moments I even floated.

Medium: Dye on silk, found fabrics, fused collage, machine quilted

Materials and Process