I am a fiber artist and retired art educator living in South Orange, New Jersey. I have been drawn to fibers since my three years of elective sewing classes in high school. In the early 1970's, I had a macramé business with a friend. As a student at the Philadelphia College of Art, I found my way to the fibers department, and have been in love with fiber work ever since. In addition to my own artwork, over the years I have sewn amazing costumes for my children, created woven and painted silk talit (Jewish prayer shawls), and created painted silk chuppahs (Jewish wedding canopies). I have also designed and led community fiber projects using tapestry, felt, and painted silk techniques. Now I am knitting and making felt play food for my granddaughter. As human beings, we spend almost every moment of our lives touched by fibers. I love working in a medium that is incredibly rich in history and importance to our civilization.
Following my graduation from art school with a degree in Art Education and a studio concentration in Fibers, I was fortunate to find two very different jobs that suited me perfectly and set me upon the path which I have followed to this day.
The first position was teaching fibers in the pre-college summer program and in the evening school of Philadelphia College of Art. My instructors in the Fibers Department recognized and encouraged my abilities as a teacher and I loved teaching fibers to a diverse group of adults, as well as to high school students in the pre-college summer program. Many years later when my own children were in elementary school, I decided to try what I had been trained to do in college, that is to be an art teacher. I taught at a local pre K-2 elementary school for eleven years. It was a great joy to introduce art to these very young eager students. I spent a great deal of time and energy teaching about the importance of art in our lives, and designed many community art projects that had great impact on the school, the students, and their families. After many years at the elementary level, I decided to make a giant leap and began teaching in the high school. This was a great opportunity to grow as an educator and to see many of the students I had taught early on, now on the other end of their public school careers. I taught drawing, design, AP Studio Art, and my first love...fibers. I loved teaching students how to become more personally expressive in their work, and sought to find ways to use art in community-building.
My second post-college job was one that was advertised as a "part-time position, knowledge of weaving and sewing necessary." I thought this was meant for me, though I had no idea what the job was. I got the position as an oriental rug restorer for a rug cleaning business, learned what I could, and then began working on my own. When I moved from Philadelphia to New York with my husband, I easily found work from dealers and collectors in Manhattan. More importantly for me as an artist, was the influence the rugs had on my artistic expression and design aesthetic. I studied the symbolism and structure of rugs, I saved all the bits and pieces that I removed from the rugs, and incorporated them into my own work. I continue to be fascinated by the use of borders, and the concept of the "sky gate". As the viewer looks down into the center field of a rug, the viewer is meant to be transported to another place, a more heavenly place, and at the same time, a more internal place. This is a concept that has remained important to me, and continues to run through much of my own work all these years later.
EDUCATION
1972 – 1975 PHILADELPHIA COLLEGE OF ART
BFA Art Education, Fibers studio concentration
1970 – 1972 BOSTON UNIVERSITY
EXPERIENCE
1994 - Present Art Teacher / High School and Elementary
1976 - 1982 Oriental Rug Restorer
1976 - 1978 Fibers Instructor/College
EXHIBITIONS
2021 NJ Arts Annual: ReVision & Respond, Newark Art Museum, Newark, NJ
2019 NJ Crafts Annual:New Directions in Fiber Art, Montclair Art Museum, Montclair, NJ
2017 Portrait of an Art Teacher, 23 Years, Columbia HS, Maplewood, NJ
2016 World of Threads Festival 2016, Oakville, Ontario, Canada
2016 Fiber Options: Material Explorations, Maryland Federation of Art, Annapolis, MD
2016 What We Keep, Pierro Gallery, South Orange, NJ
2015 The Great Craft Exhibiton, The Belskie Museum of Art & Science, Closter, NJ
New Jersey Arts Annual:Crafts , Morris Museum, Morristown, NJ
11 Point Perspective, Pierro Gallery, South Orange, NJ
2014 Expressions of the Natural World, Monmouth Museum, Lincroft, NJ
2013 New Jersey Arts Annual:Currents in Contemporary Craft, Noyes Arts Garage,
Atlantic City, NJ
Warp and Woof-18 Solo Projects, Rupert Ravens Nexxt, Paterson, NJ
Fiber577, 577 Foundation, Perrysburg, OH and Angelwood Gallery, Grand Rapids, OH
Fiber Art, Poudre Studio Artists and Galleries, Fort Collins, CO
Texture and Trails, D & R Greenway Landtrust Gallery, Princeton, NJ
2011 Counterparts, Alfa Art Gallery, New Brunswick, NJ
Uncommon Threads, Artworks, Trenton, NJ
2010 Garden Path Series, Michaelian & Kohlberg, Summit, NJ
Reaching Out/Reaching In, The Pierro Gallery of South Orange, NJ
2008 Mushroom Basket Series, The Pierro Gallery Juried Craft Sale
2006 Stairs, The Dancing Goat, South Orange, NJ
2004 Synopsis @ 10, Pierro Gallery of South Orange
2001 Portals Collages, Summit JCC, Summit, NJ
2000 Portals Collages, The Pierro Gallery, South Orange, NJ
1987 Fibers Underfoot, Hoffman Gallery, Oregon School of Arts
1984 Country of Origin, USA: A decade of Contemporary Rugs
The Textile Museum, Washington, D.C. Exhibition tour South America
Between Space, lower right Textile Museum, 1984
Newly constructed garage studio, 2015