Personal Statement:

Although my training is in sculpture, I chose the humble basket form to be the thing I make over and over again. I work with common, or unnoble, materials, in an attempt to open the door to what art can be. Give it some fresh air.I gather and prepare my materials from what is at hand. Sometimes it’s willow and sage; other times I handle castoffs from my urban environment--- coke cans or plastic or telephone wire. Weaving with only my hands for tools, I’m transported back to the very beginning of human time, when some dark, mysterious woman manipulated leaves and twigs into a container to carry fish or berries or nuts back to the family shelter. From the practical to the spiritual, a basket has symbolized nurture throughout all time.

I am profoundly grounded in where I live. The unceasing struggle between fire and water has created the mystery that is this Great Basin land. It inspires me to weave with as much power as I can, taking leap after leap into the unknown. Sometimes the passion is fuel for some amazing new project; sometimes it seems to dribble away and disappear like a desert stream, leaving me dry, asking questions I can’t solve.

It seems to me that I live and work in a land in between, a land not included in visions of other western areas, a land so vast and yet so overwhelmed with layers of meaning, that defining and celebrating its diversity is the challenge. Sometimes I express the empty in my work; more often I seem to pack and fill a basket with layers of meaning-- and anything counts as long as there is a strong and clear message.

I work alone and like it that way. I try to excavate the experiences in my life to create a work that makes a difference. I feel both very ancient, connected to those that have preceded me, and very contemporary, because I join other contemporary American basketmakers in blazing a trail to create a new art form that nurtures an old, old memory--one without words-- that lies deep within all of us.