Calm at Day’s End is the result of combining three photos taken during an amazing sunset over the town of Mendocino. The layering of the circle and half-circle over the top creates additional nuances to the colors and subtle value changes. Surface Tension depicts koi swimming in a pool, and the ripples the swimming fish make on the surface of the water. The addition of colorful wedge weave enhances the inherent feeling of movement. Passageway is based on a photo that I took in an 11th-century defensive castle on Ortigia, a small island off Sicily. I chose to emphasize visual and actual texture in this small tapestry, weaving in textures of pick and pick and wedge weave in the foreground, and using textured accent yarns and small glass beads for a more tactile surface than is my norm.

I live in a rural area and find that my tapestry designs are most often influenced by nature and by my explorations of the wonders of color, line, form, and the subtlety and diversity of the world around me. I often combine these elements with strong geometric shapes. The contrast between strong forms and the organic makes for a dynamic that appeals to me. My travels around this country and others have also been the inspiration for some of my tapestries.