“No more using my indoor voice.”

I am currently exploring making art from the collision of disparate, even opposing elements: fiber, knitting, weaving, spinning, stitchery, several kinds of felting, printing original photos on silk, beading and various sorts of construction in combination with original poetry or “lyrics”. I use quite a lot of “repurposed materials”– which sounds better than “stuff I dig out of other people’s trash.”

I have discovered that dark and scary and angry and sad voices are ok– even for women– even for OLD women. I no longer feel compelled to be polite. I prefer dark reality and angry beauty to cheery prettiness.

I have a couple of semesters of college-level training in the fine arts, and I have learned from some wonderful craft-persons. I intend to keep smashing the rocks of many art and craft forms together, hoping to strike sparks. I’m hoping to further explore storytelling and retelling of myths/fairytales in the coming year.

Roger Cardinal describes “outsider” artists as having “profound strangeness and integrity”– that’s my aspiration.

“Humor and creativity come from collision … from two things that don’t go together, and you just smash them together. The sacred, the profane, the beautiful, the ugly, the rust and the pearls, the little old lady doing needlework, the dark, crazy, wild woman voice.” — Lynn Graznak Saults, fibers artist, on the intersections in her work