Spirit-Guided the artist's story
I was born with the Sun and Moon in Sagittarius and Aries rising. For the astrologers among us, this means a lot of fire. It has taken a long time to get grounded. (Boston MA Dec 11 1939 12:49 pm). I was a child with great dreamings and a tendency to get lost in pools of color. I had imaginary friends with impossible names who lived in Rumpydoodle Land. I made an elaborate home for fairies in the woods behind my house. I searched out special mosses, and carefully placed them as a carpet around a small opening in a tree root, and surrounded it with a circle of stones. I tended it daily.
My mother was a talented artist and gardener and dressmaker. She inspired me to find extraordinary beauty in ordinary things. I had early visions of colorful crowds of flowers, special insects with amazing colors, and the great rock and shell treasures that abound on Cape Cod. These organic forms still inspire and inform my work.
School
When it was time to leave home, I deeply yearned to live in a big city. I was dreaming of NY but I was not courageous enough to go there yet, so for two years I studied painting at the Boston Museum School. That was city enough for a start, and it was there that I began to learn how to live on my own. The school was a great start for art training. We had life drawing every morning for two years, rigorous design, painting and art history classes. It was a thrill to learn how large the world of art was, and yet I yearned to have more freedom, less academic training.
;) Scorpion 1966. |
I saw in an art magazine the work of Richard Diebenkorn, and was able to convince my parents that I needed to go to San Francisco to study with him at the California School of Fine Arts. (The year after I graduated with my BFA, the name changed to the San Francisco Art Institute) On the day I first entered the school, there was a student up on a tall ladder, painting a huge mural on the wall with his hands. Yes, this is the place I need to be, I thought. It was a grand experience altogether, to be inspired by teachers like Diebenkorn and Elmer Bischoff.
I discovered light and space and the joy of how to be excited about painting without a whole lot of direct instruction. I learned by seeing how these painters I so admired handled paint with so much freedom, and by observing how color can create space. I met a most creative sculptor and fellow student there. We got married and moved to New York.
The Big Apple
I lived here for 26 years. We moved here in 1962 to jump into not only the intense artistic expression of New York, but also the tumult and disorientation of the ever changing world of the sixties. With nine other artists, I was part of the Park Place Gallery which was one of the very first of the downtown Soho galleries, and had the distinction of being supported by several major art collectors. We lived that somewhat impoverished artist life that included things like hiding from the fire department's random inspections of lofts to ascertain whether there was actual living going on there, which at the time was highly illegal.
My work changed a lot. I moved from somewhat pictorial expressionistic colorful forms into exploring the possibility of shifting space only by the use of clean lines, geometric shapes and color. I had very romantic notions about how life should be lived. When my precious daughter was born, a little bit of reality began to take hold.
;)
Lower Manhattan Ocean Club |
When our marriage ended, I had some figuring to do about how to keep things together financially. This and that person was forever asking me where did I get this or that dress, and because there was never really any money for shopping, and because I had my dressmaking skills I would take a piece of fabric, and just cut. I was often surprised by how things would match up, fit, and look great. It seemed like magic to me, and so in this way I started making clothes. No training, no patternmaking, no business sense. I experimented with dyes and silk and with the colors thus possible, I was in heaven.
More or less at the same time I discovered the incredible world of astrology, and then a meditation group that became a pivotal part of my life. The energy of the combination of these things had the power to shoot this budding enthusiasm for clothing design into a retail store, and then a wholesale business that sold to specialty stores in many many places. My little art/design company suddenly had seamstresses and patternmakers and bookkeepers and payroll taxes. I did this for sixteen years, until it wasn't fun anymore.
I knew something was happening the day I walked through the flower market area, in seeing the young men rushing down the sidewalks with their towering carts of cut flowers I burst into tears. I was weeping for the flowers. I couldn't stop. I needed soil, I needed nature, I needed to be planted.
The Big Dream
Not too long after that I had a powerful dream about a place called White, Texas. The feeling of it was of light and freedom. It had unprecedented impact. I asked a friend who lived in Dallas if there was such a place. She said, "Not that I know of, but there's Blanco". Blanco is near Austin and so I went there. It's hard to believe, but in two months after this visit, I moved to Austin. I had never before in my life felt the presence of Spirit Guidance in the way that I did in making this decision to completely end my business in NY, move to this city where I knew not a single person, leave my daughter in our apartment. (She was in her last year of NYU so we decided she could manage this.)
I had a dream about the house I was going to live in, and after driving around looking for houses for an hour and a half, I saw it. I pulled up to the house just as the previous tenants were packing their things into a van. I walked in and knew this was my house. Everything was easy. I began taking lots of personal growth and healing kinds of workshops. I instantly found soul connected friends. For nine years I explored deeper layers of who I am, my creativity, my relationship to myself.
;) Patch Jacket 1993. |
Austin was an amazing place for me to do this. I felt completely at home there. The air is soft. There is live music every night. It's warm. I found ways to care for myself that I had never dreamed possible. A psychic told me that Austin has a giant quartz crystal underneath the ground and that people are drawn there for healing. I believe it. It worked for me. I learned to trust there. I learned to trust events, inner promptings, people, and more importantly myself.
In my last year in Texas, I actually had the opportunity to live in Blanco. I didn't go there directly, because it was too small, I couldn't imagine how I would survive there. But in the last year I lived on a 1700 acre ranch in a small house from which I could see only juniper trees, live oaks and wild flowers. There were deer, scorpions, fire ants and armadillos in great abundance. To me they were all treasures--except for the fire ants.
I communicated with nature spirits and contemplated the fact that I had remet the man who had been my highschool sweetheart when we were in the ninth grade. It needed some contemplation because I was having some very unique feelings about him, and yet he lived in Pennsylvania and was on my 'no, no' list because he was married at the time.
Now I'm here
;)
Ornamental Bottle |
I did move to Pennsylvania, and married this high school sweetheart. We now live in the midst of the beautiful rolling hills of Lancaster County that support industrious Amish farmers as well as enthusiastic fox hunters. My husband began making and woodfiring pottery after he retired from his aerial survey company. We have our studios and lots of room for creative fun. I am surrounded by an extreme abundance of wildlife and exploding gardens.
The bead odyssey began in 2000 when I took a workshop with Kate Fowle and came home with a torch. With this hot liquid color, the vision I need to see is able to materialize. With this fire, I feel nourished like nothing else has ever done. I take workshops whenever possible. So far, I've learned essential things from Stevi Belle, Jim Smirsich, Nancy Tobey and Doug Remschneider. I have the luxury of spending full time making beads and jewelry and to completely engage with this imagination of mine.
| Education | |||
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1960-62 |
Bachelor of Fine Arts California School of Fine Arts |
San Francisco, CA |
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1958-60 |
Boston Museum School |
Boston, MA |
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| History | |||
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2002 |
Beadmaking workshop with Jim Smircich |
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2002 |
Beadmaking workshop with Nancy Tobey |
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2002 |
Beadmaking workshop with Stevi Belle |
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2000 |
Study flameworked beadmaking with Kate Fowle |
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1998 |
Become fascinated with beads, begin stringing them |
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1996 |
Move to Pennsylvania |
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1992 |
Concentration on painting/collage |
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1987 |
Continue with art clothing in Austin |
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1986 |
Close business in NYC and move to Austin, TX |
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1973-86 |
Make handpainted, original clothing, sell in own retail store in Soho NY, as well as wholesale to specialty stores nationwide. |
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1970 |
Begin experimenting with handpainted silk |
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1963-67 |
Original member of Park Place Gallery NY. |
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1962 |
Move to NYC, take myself seriously as an artist. |
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| Books | |||
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2004 |
1000 Glass Beads |
Lark Books |
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2003 |
La Nouvelle Abstraction Americaine 1950-1970 |
Skira |
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1982 |
Fashion 2001 |
Viking Press, NY |
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1975 |
Batik in Many Forms |
William Morrow, NY |
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| Exhibitions | |||
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2002 |
Chester Springs Studio Members exhibit |
Chester Springs, PA |
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2001 |
Chester Springs Studio Members exhibit |
Chester Springs, PA |
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1993 |
Gayle Wilson Gallery |
Southampton, NY |
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1992 |
"Newform "93" Dougherty Art Center |
Austin, TX |
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1990 |
Gayle Wilson Gallery |
Southampton, NY |
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1985 |
"Wearable Art for the Collector" Evansville Museum of Arts & Science Received "Best in show"Award |
Evansville, IN. |
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1983 |
Gayle Wilson Gallery |
Southampton, NY |
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1982 |
Gayle Wilson Gallery |
Southampton, NY |
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1981 |
"Art Couture, Haute Couture" |
Pittsburgh, PA |
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1981 |
"You"ll Never Walk Alone" Clothing as Art |
Cleveland, OH |
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1981 |
Sylvia Ullman American Crafts |
Cleveland, OH |
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1969 |
Paula Cooper Gallery |
New York, NY |
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1968 |
"Park Place Group" M.I.T. |
Cambridge, MA |
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1967 |
"Park Place Group" |
Denver, CO |
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1965 |
"Art for the City" |
Philadelphia, PA |
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1966 |
Solo exhibition Park Place Gallery |
New York, NY |
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1965 |
Lannan Foundation Four Winds Gallery |
Palm Beach FL |
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1962-1967 |
Park Place Gallery Group Exhibitions |
New York NY |
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| Articles and Reproductions | |||
April 1993 |
Arkansas Democrat Gazette Little Rock, AK |
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March 1984 |
New York Post |
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December 1982 |
New York Times |
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January 1982 |
Women's Wear Daily |
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October 1981 |
Soho News |
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September 1981 |
New York Post |
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January 1981 |
The Cincinnati Inquirer |
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August 1980 |
The New York Times |
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August 1980 |
Women's Wear Daily |
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July 1980 |
San Antonio Light |
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July 1980 |
San Antonio Express |
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1980 |
Virginia Slims Print Ad |
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June 1980 |
Women's Wear Daily |
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April 1980 |
Women's Wear Daily |
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February 1980 |
The Star |
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February 1980 |
Women's Wear Daily |
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February 1980 |
Women's Wear Daily |
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January 1980 |
Women's Wear Daily |
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December 1979 |
Daily News |
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November 1979 |
Life Magazine |
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November 1979 |
New York Post |
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September 1979 |
Inside New York |
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September 1979 |
The Plain Dealer, Cleveland OH |
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September 1979 |
Women's Wear Daily |
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July 1979 |
New York Magazine |
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June 1979 |
Women's Wear Daily |
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March 1979 |
Daily News |
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January 1979 |
Women's Wear Daily |
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January 1979 |
Women's Wear Daily |
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November 1978 |
Sunday News Magazine |
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October 1978 |
McCall's |
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June 1978 |
Women's Wear Daily (Cover) |
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June 1978 |
California Apparel News |
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May 1978 |
Cue |
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April 1978 |
Women's Wear Daily |
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February 1978 |
New York Times 'Fashion' Carrie Donovan |
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January 1978 |
Harper's Bazaar |
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August 1977 |
Mademoiselle |
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April 1977 |
New York Times 'Metropolitan Baedeker' |
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March 1977 |
Working Woman |
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March 1977 |
Daily News |
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December 1976 |
New York Post 'Inside Fashion' |
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October 1976 |
Soho Weekly News |
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June 1976 |
Video City |
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November 1975 |
Women's Wear Daily |
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October 1975 |
W |
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June 1975 |
Women's Wear Daily |
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June 1974 |
New York Magazine |
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May 1974 |
New York Magazine |
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April 1974 |
Soho Weekly News |
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January 1974 |
Vogue Magazine |
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December 1973 |
New York Times 'Shop Talk' |
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December 1973 |
Village Voice 'Centerfold' |
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December 1973 |
New York Magazine |
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December 1973 |
Soho Weekly News |
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November 1973 |
Soho Weekly News 'Rose Hartman' |
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July 1973 |
New York Times 'Shop Talk' |
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February 1973 |
New York Magazine 'Best Bets' |
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January 1966 |
Art News |
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