statement and a gallery of my recent work

medicine earth 2021 wool, linen, hand stitch, 73.5 x 73 inches

I have been exhibiting my hand stitched textiles for over four decades. For the last dozen years or so, I have been making my work from rescued table linens, old wool blankets, and beautiful new fabrics such as velvet, silk, wool, and linen that I dye myself with locally harvested plants or kitchen waste. I create large scale abstract artworks with the aim to communicate in a poetic way. By poetic I mean that I want my viewer’s personal and large inner world to rise up while they slowly move alongside or around one of my pieces. 

Eternity 2021, Prayer to the Sky 2019, Thoughts and Memories and Dreams 2024

My work is sculptural. The quilts or blankets are double-sided, with each side having its own title. The cloaks, cocoons and bundles that I make hang from the ceiling or are presented on plinths. With my art, I hope to invite a reverie, such as one receives from being alone in nature. 

Time Future: Touch the Stars 2021,  Eternity 2021 

I believe that the sense of touch gives a direct path to the inner world and so I hand-stitch many repeated textural marks into the large areas of cloth to give my work haptic power. I want the urge to touch it or be touched by it, to be almost overwhelming. 

Underfoot the Earth Divine 2020, damask linen, natural dyes, hand stitch 89 x 89 inches, 
Her Arms Wrapped Round and My Heart, wool bundles, the size of toddlers

The soft materials I prefer contain stories about time. Memories can be triggered by these repurposed domestic cloths, either about family dinners, or about feeling warm and protected while falling into the vulnerability of sleep and dream. I use natural dyes, hand pieced small and large pieces of cloth, embroidered circles, feelings of vastness and cosmic mystery, phenomenological knowledge, and the power of unique, slow, textural marks, each one placed by the hand.

Soft Summer Gone 2017  silk, natural dyes, wool and silk threads, hand stitch 100 x 100 inches

I grew up on 160 acres outside of Fort Frances, North Western Ontario. As a child I experienced many long days of solitude and daydream.

My Open Heart 2017 wool, natural dyes, hand stitch 58 x 48 inches

In order to regain that open way of being I choose to live and work on an island in Lake Huron, and to spend most of my time alone. My husband and I have lived and worked on Manitoulin Island for over thirty years and feel privileged to be welcomed here on Ojibwe and Odawa land. We raised our children here. Manitou means The Great Spirit in the Anishinaabeg language and the palpable spiritual quality of this place feeds me, every day and every night of the year.

Under Drifting Stars  2022, cotton, natural dyes, hand embroidery quilted, 80 x 91 inches

I am a second-generation settler, as my father immigrated to Burris township in North Western Ontario from Finland when he was five years old. The Finnish aesthetic of simplicity and noble poverty greatly informs my work. 

Cloudy Day 2024, wool, velvet, cotton, hand stitch  91 x 52 inches

However, my work is also fed by daily views of Manitowaning Bay and the Wikwemikong Peninsula that I enjoy.

Sacred Ground 2024  wool, natural dye, hand stitch, 64 x 37.5 inches

I’ve never lived in an urban centre for longer than a month or two at a time but instead, have chosen to live close to nature and rather isolated on this sparsely-populated island. Both of my university degrees in fine art were obtained through distance education. I’m very grateful for the internet which connects me to art and culture around the world.

Earth and Air  2017  wool, linen, natural dyes, hand stitch  94 x 82 inches

The intent of my work is that it will make you feel like I do when I am alone looking out over the horizon or moving slowly through a windy field of grass or forest path.