I lived most of my life in Minneapolis and St. Paul having a career as an organizational development consultant. I learned to weave in 2003 when I moved to the remote and beautiful Magdalena Mountains of central New Mexico. I fell in love with everything weaving. My first weaving teacher not only taught me about weaving, but also about sheep ranching, lambing, shearing and wool processing.
I began weaving southwest style rugs on a Rio Grande style “walking loom,” which is the traditional Spanish treadle loom introduced into New Mexico 400 years ago. My weaving was enhanced by time spent at my teacher’s wool processing mill experimenting with fiber and creating yarn.
I was introduced to tapestry weaving by James Koehler, one of New Mexico’s premier tapestry weavers. The five years with James as my teacher and mentor shaped my tapestry weaving.
I currently live in New Mexico and Minnesota with my husband, Gerry, and our Westie, Phoebe.
The complexity of weaving tapestries fascinates me. It is a journey through color, form, and structure. In weaving tapestries my goal is to capture the essence of nature in an abstract way creating movement through subtle blending of color.
My art is influenced by the landscape that surrounds me: Minnesota’s lush green forests and sky blue lakes; New Mexico’s majestic mountains and white desert sands. These moments are what I want to capture in my tapestries.
I like weaving tapestries for many reasons: the feel of the soft fiber in my fingers; the meditative quality of moving the weft back and forth through the warp; the challenge of making all the choices in color, design, fiber, and technique to bring the image alive on the loom. Weaving for me is a journey of self-discovery and self-expression through color and form. When I create tapestries, I arrive at a deeper understanding of myself.
2022 Albuquerque Fiber Fiesta, Albuquerque, New Mexico 1st Place for Aurora; 2nd Place; Judges’ Choice and HGA Award for Shimmer
2020 Local Color, Mesilla Valley Weavers Guild, New Mexico Farm and Ranch Heritage Museum, Las Cruces, NM
2019 Fiber as Metaphor, Gallery Fritz, Santa Fe, NM
2019 Earth Threads, Open Space Visitor Center Gallery, Albuquerque, NM
2018 Recall, Recapture, Remember, Tansey Gallery, Santa Fe, NM
2018 Tapestry as Exploration and Innovation, Fuller Lodge Art Center, Los Alamos, NM
2018 The Language of Tapestry, Tombaugh Art Gallery, Las Cruces, NM
2017 Harvest, Adobe Patio Gallery, Las Cruces, NM
2016 Questioning Limits: Exploration in Tapestry, College of Fine Arts Downtown Gallery, Albuquerque, NM
2015 Albuquerque Fiber Arts Fiesta, Manuel Lujan Exhibition Hall, Albuquerque, NM 2rd Place for Tapestry and People’s Choice Award for Weaving
2015 Tapestry Through Time, The Historic Taos Inn, Taos, NM
2015 State of Art: Tapestry in the 21st Century: The Fine Art of Eight Southwest Masters, Jonathan Abrams Art Gallery, Albuquerque, NM
2014-2015 American Tapestry Biennial 10, Visions Art Museum, San Diego, CA (2014); Kent State University Museum, Kent, OH (2015); Kaneko, Omaha, NE (2015)
2014 From the Heart, Vertu Fine Arts Gallery, Socorro, NM
2014 Primavera, Adobe Patio Gallery, Mesilla, NM
2014 Visually Vital, Vertu Fine Arts Gallery, Socorro, NM
2013 Albuquerque Fiber Arts Fiesta, Manuel Lujan Exhibition Hall, Albuquerque, NM, 2rd Place for Tapestry
2013 Local Landscape, Local Color, Vertu Fine Arts Gallery, Socorro, NM
2013 Interwoven– Five Fiber Friends, Unsettled Gallery, Las Cruces, NM
2013 Weaving the Threads of the Past into the Future, Mesilla Valley Weavers Guild, New Mexico Farm and Ranch Heritage Museum, Las Cruces, NM, Curator of this Exhibit and Exhibitor
2011 Albuquerque Fiber Arts Fiesta, Manuel Lujan Exhibition Hall, Albuquerque, NM, 3rd Place for Tapestry
2009 Albuquerque Fiber Arts Fiesta, Manuel Lujan Exhibition Hall, Albuquerque, NM, 2nd Place in “First time exhibition in a juried show”
2005 Taos Wool Festival, Taos, NM, 3rd Place in Tapestry Division