Making a soft, eclectic world by hand...
I grew up in a little mountain town that always seemed to be about 20 years behind the times, and where Chinese food was about as adventurous as things got. When I was 17, I came across a copy of The Goodfellow Catalog of Wonderful Things, which was a catalog of handmade goods, crafted by people all over the country. This was before the internet, and long before the resurgence of the modern craft movement, a time when my world was so very small. This book made the world enormous for me. All of a sudden, there were possibilities that I'd never dreamed could exist. And ever since, I've dreamed of a world made by hand.
I dreamed of being an artist long before I understood that something like that was actually possible for me. In the course of pursuing my goals, I earned a BS in anthropology and later in graphic design. Currently, I work as a freelance graphic designer, but I'm also building my skills as an illustrator and artist. I've been doing felt sculpture for many years, as well as other hands-on crafts, some of which I offer here. If you count drawing in the margins of class notes (I do), I've been drawing since before first grade.
I am most often inspired by the colors of nature, by beautiful, whimsical illustrations (especially for children's books), by vintage art, and by my own crazy sense of humor. I'm fueled by coffee, chocolate, bike rides and B movies.
