Kickapoo

My work over 30 years is constantly evolving as I experiment with the coiled basket. Using pine needles, raffia and rice paper my baskets are containers, standing structures, wall hung vessels and suspended tubes. When I complete a basket form I then add a thin layer of rice paper providing me with a skin-like surface to paint and draw. My travels throughout the world inspire and inform what I create. My travels have taken to me to the remote area of Arnhem land, Australia. I have been interested in aboriginal art since the 1970's. My artwork reflects the joy and excitement I felt traveling to see these sites, passing through crocodile infested rivers and endless red dirt roads. My bold colors and local animals express my response to this distant landscape and viewing the rock walls covered in art unique to the Arnhem land. Recently in Cuba I discovered the artist Amelia Pelaez whose paintings from the 1940's depict Cuba's tropical flora and colonial architecture. Bright colors and intricate designs in my recent artwork are a result of discovering Pelaez's paintings in Havana's National Museum of art.