Category: 2009-2017

In 2009, following extensive international travel and a relocation to Asheville, North Carolina,  I proposed a course on felt surface design techniques at the International Surface Design Association Conference in Kansas City, MO. The exposure gained as a result of my workshop, lecture and demonstration video propelled my reputation and demand as a workshop instructor, both domestically and internationally, however, the making of sculptural works diminished, being replaced by less time consuming, more saleable and transportable work. The sculpture I did create during this period amplified the techniques I was frequently teaching such as developing realistic imagery through felt application of colored sheets of wool, the use of free-motion embroidery to detail and emboss surfaces and the use of differential shrinkage to sculpt concave and convex form. While work became technique heavy and imagery supplanted the inclusion of found objects, ideas of oppositional extremes became apparent, yet dominated by felt’s character: protective, inward, concave, shrunk and dense.