I am a maker. I create forms that reference women’s bodies, capturing their experiences and stories. These stories shape and are contained by these figurative vessels, vessels that carefully hold the content of their lives.

My pieces speak of the importance of the women in my life, of their strengths and sorrows, their growth and joys. My craft development work, with women in Africa, has had a profound influence on my work and on my life. I have learned to simplify things, to let the forms and the materials speak for themselves.

I work in collaboration with each piece as it is develops. Each one can stand alone, or in support and unity with a community of women. Each one has a story to share, a role in the world.

I have been creating baskets for almost 40 years, using and adapting well-practiced skills. I work intuitively with my materials: silks and cottons, archival paper, wires, sand, threads, buttons, encaustic wax, and acrylic paints and mediums. Their colors and textures inform the vessels I create.

I have been a basketmaker since 1975, when I first apprenticed to an 81-year-old traditional white ash basketmaker. Since 1990, I have been exploring plaiting techniques, the use of heavy cotton paper as a material, and the possibilities of contemporary basketry. I exhibit my work at shows, galleries and museums, and have been included in numerous books. My work is in many collections, most notably the Renwick Gallery of the Smithsonian Institution. I have received grants from both the Vermont Arts Council and the Vermont Community Foundation. I teach throughout the US, Australia, Canada, and Ghana.