My love affair with Wisconsin continues in the pursuit of the prairie.  Once vast and almost endless, we now cultivate prairies in sanctuaries.

Every year I visit my home state to renew my relationships with family, friends and the land.  This yearly pilgrimage realigns my work unexpectedly; I am swayed by its charms.

In the first two quilts of this series, I pictured the wall guarding the grass. In the third, the wall is the grass itself.

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

Materials and Process

The prairie is mythic—seemingly simple and repetitive, but complex and varied when contemplated further.  The wind animates the plants into countless waving elements.

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

Materials and Process

In 2003 I made a large still life quilt titled Life Lesson with an exuberant bouquet of flowers centrally placed (see below).  I surprised myself at its success in form and impact, but wasn’t able to approach the subject again for almost three years.  

At the start of 2006 I gave myself the challenge of producing a series of works of a simple vase and flower bouquet, sitting on a table, tightly cropped in composition.   It was an art lesson—an assignment that I gave myself.  Much like Pat Steir’s The Brueghel Series (A Vanitas of Style), 1982-1984, I also wanted to study and reference well-known artists and artworks of like subject matter.  

In order to get up my nerve, I began with Van Gogh’s sunflowers, specifically, Fourteen Sunflowers in a Vase, 1889, some might say the most famous flowers of all.  While studying this painting, I adapted my methods of cutting, monoprinting and textile collage to render the image.  The series, Famous and Not So Famous Flowers began to take shape.  

I also gathered, photographed and collaged some less famous flowers, along with emulating those of Matisse and Mondrian. 

“Vera” is Vera Neumann, one of my earliest design influences.

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

Materials and Process

While on an early morning walk in Healdsburg, California I came upon a garden lined with a wall of enormous sunflowers.  These flowers were clearly past their prime, their petals dry and their heads heavy and bowed.  They were glorious and I couldn’t get them out of my mind.

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

Materials and Process

Meadows, fields, and gardens continue to entrance me. I garden in my studio as well as my yard.  I gather flowers and arrange them, thinking about their variety, pattern, and scale.

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

Materials and Process

My “Granny Hagene” had a beautiful flower garden and I spent many hours with her there.  The traditional and hexagonal quilt pattern, Grandmother’s Flower Garden, is the basis for the structure. 

Working with three axes, instead of the usual two of the grid, challenged my design process and spatial thinking. I used this format to have a dialogue between two themes of my work: the flower and the nest.

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

Materials and Process

Flowers are for me an expression of the joy and mystery of the creative process.  Here I explore radial symmetry and the power of the circle, giving each flower its own explosive energy.  

I hand-cut all the petals with a very sharp scissors, a process that is surprisingly calming.

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

Materials and Process

The Daisy Chain series continues my studio garden work and explores the possibilities of the square and circle as an abstract flower image.  To complicate the surface, I have used an antique wood block to print directly on the collaged quilt.  I stitched through the layers with a pattern of chained daisies.

I think of this series as being a connection between the art movements of Abstract Expressionism and Pop with traditional patched quilts.

Medium: Dye and paint on silk, cotton, found fabrics, fused collage, machine quilted, some block printed

Materials and Process