Walking with Hortense (round) Sculpture

Applying ancestral skills in a contemporary setting, my work comprises studies in fiber entanglement, collage and print. Inspired by the idiosyncrasies of nature and the restorative power of color, I strive to infuse my pieces with a sense of delight, using natural materials: wool, silk, hemp, cotton, flowers, bark and roots. This can take many forms including layering and sculpting with wool to create highly textured felted pieces. Or spinning yarn to create knotted sculptures, incorporating foraged metal and wood. Often using the materials that we’ve lost respect for, or squander. My process tends to start with a loose narrative, and as I work with the materials, I'll respond to the shape of what’s transpiring. I’m always editing and distilling, looking to capture a core idea and critical energy, with a graphic, and hopefully, compelling result. Bodies of work have included: ‘Journeys that I’ll never Take’ which asked questions about our physical and psychological boundaries. ‘Love, Hope & Entanglement’ - an apropos theme given life has become more complex. And ‘Threads That Bind Us’, looking at how we need to move on from concepts of home – whether that be a dwelling, or relationships that hold us in stasis. This work led to the most recent series inspired by our early transition into the Neolithic age - shifting from nomadic behaviors to sedentism, where we created settlements along water courses. Using silk cocoons, a creature's first home as an analogy. I’ve lived in Laguna Beach for 22-years and have journeyed through many career chapters woven together by a creative thread. Prior careers in both theater and experiential design exposed me to different mediums of storytelling. And along with training in color, textiles, design theory and material sustainability, for the last decade I’ve maintained an experimental, material and humanities driven, educational art practice. My work relies on farmers, sheep, shearers, growers, foragers, silkworms; educators and mentors, tool-making craftspeople, and mother nature. I’m eternally grateful to each of them. Commissions welcomed IG .b