My journey to art started when I was a young teen in the 60s though I didn’t know it. I was taking an art class and put together a satisfying collage in only a few minutes. Both the teacher and I were impressed. But I thought of myself as a poet, not an artist, even though I took great delight in the purchase of a pack of colored papers with which I made collages. In college, I began to knit. I created my own knitting patterns as I was not inclined to follow anyone else’s. I still didn’t recognize this as any sort of art. I was simply a knitter who made garments. I earned bachelor’s degrees in English and one in horticulture, and eventually a Master’s degree in botany, and I also kept knitting. So then I thought of myself as a knitting scientist. When I had a child, science went by the wayside, but not the knitting, so I was a knitting mother. And yet I still did not recognize myself as an artist. I joined the Chimneyville Weavers and Spinners Guild and the Craftsmens’ Guild of Mississippi and others began referring to me as an artist. I started to get the hint. My first non-garment knitted piece was a sculpture of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. In 2004, I joined the Louisville Area Fiber and Textile Artists (LAFTA) and also had the opportunity to take art classes at the University of Louisville, earning a Master of Art degree in Fiber Art under Lida Gordon in 2013. I was chair of LAFTA for five years and participated in many of their shows. I created an outdoor display of my tree doilies at Yew Dell Botanical Gardens in Crestwood, Kentucky. I had a show with a crocheting friend in a downtown Louisville gallery in 2021. Now that we have moved to Atlanta, I have a tiny house specifically for my art studio. After all this time, I finally honor the artist in me.
Education
BA English University of Connecticut 1975
BS Horticulture University of Connecticut 1979
MS Botany University of Connecticut 1981
MA Studio Art University of Louisville 2013
