Meet the Artist
Artist Bio:
“The Arts” have fascinated me since childhood. In college, it was literature and writing. During my child-rearing years in Pittsburgh, my interest turned to pottery. I learned wheel-throwing, glaze-making, and kiln-firing of pottery through workshops and private lessons and was a member of the Pittsburgh Craftsman Guild. My works were juried into shows at the Pittsburgh Arts & Crafts Center, and I taught hand-building pottery in the local high school’s continuing education program.
Upon moving to Raleigh in 1980, I became a “teaching docent” at the North Carolina Museum of Art and served as president of the docent organization in 1987. While accompanying my husband on business trips, I was able to enjoy the art collections in major U.S. and European museums and galleries. When I discovered homemade paper, I began learning how to make it.
After retiring to Valdese in 2007, I experimented further with papermaking, finding it to be a versatile medium with unlimited creative possibilities. It has been a joy to share this medium with others by conducting paper-making workshops offered by the Rock School Arts Foundation.
Artist Statement:
There is something fascinating about turning natural fiber materials into a form that can become a work of art. Just as different clays dug from the earth result in a variety of colors and textures of pottery, different fibers can make different paper. While pottery-making preceded recorded history, papermaking has a fascinating history. The earliest known papermaking processes that were developed in China around 100 AD, are the processes we still use today to make handmade paper.
Paper begins as a slurry of fibers and water stirred together in a vat. My primary fibers of choice are recycled paper, cotton linter, and abaca. Cotton linter, the fiber near the cotton seeds that is too short for cloth, is used to make soft paper. Abaca, a fiber from banana plants, is used for coffee filters and tea bags because of its strength. I use the three materials separately and in different combinations to get different textures. Other fibers, plant materials, and dyes made from soaking or boiling plant materials are added to further vary the texture and color. It intrigues me that no two sheets are exactly alike, even if made one immediately after the other from the same vat.
The art pieces are created by combining the handmade sheets with other natural and collected materials to emphasize the beauty and versatility of the paper. Combining plant and other fibers with the finished paper refers to the relationship between the paper and its origins. Other “found materials” may be added to enhance the finished works. Most of my pieces are “assemblages” rather than collages. A collage emphasizes the subject; whereas with an assemblage, the emphasis is on the elements that are “assembled” to create the work.