inspiration comes to me in many forms. an inner or outer landscape, a poem that confirms or shifts my perspective, resonant words, symbols and energy deeply felt. wherever the muse appears, the use of natural dyes, earth minerals and textiles to create art is a joy making process for me. while sewing is my first love, with collage work, i find great freedom to experiment with shapes and sizes that sewing does not readily allow and a floodgate of new possibilities open up. i love both processes, clean closed seams and raw cut exposed edges, both metaphors for life… switching back and forth stimulates my creative center ever more. the earth mineral collages are made using earth minerals pigments that i blend individually to make custom colors in a base of plant based acrylic. i paint multiple layers of mixed colors on flax linen or organic cotton fabrics. once dried, the shapes are hand cut and collaged on wooden panels using natural adhesives. a coat of plant based varnish is applied to the finished work and framed, ready to hang.

zenith

earth mineral plant acrylic painted organic cotton & linen collaged on wood panel

14.5 x 14.5 (cherry wood flush mount framed)

HYMN 
by Marie Howe

It began as an almost inaudible hum,


low and long for the solar winds


     and far dim galaxies,

a hymn growing louder, for the moon and the sun,


a song without words for the snow falling,


     for snow conceiving snow

conceiving rain, the rivers rushing without shame,


the hum turning again higher — into a riff of ridges


     peaks hard as consonants,

summits and praise for the rocky faults and crust and crevices


then down down to the roots and rocks and burrows


     the lakes’ skittery surfaces, wells, oceans, breaking

waves, the salt-deep: the warm bodies moving within it:


the cold deep: the deep underneath gleaming: some of us rising


     as the planet turned into dawn, some lying down

as it turned into dark; as each of us rested — another woke, standing


among the cast-off cartons and automobiles;


     we left the factories and stood in the parking lots,

left the subways and stood on sidewalks, in the bright offices,


in the cluttered yards, in the farmed fields,


     in the mud of the shanty towns, breaking into

harmonies we’d not known possible. finding the chords as we


found our true place singing in a million


     million keys the human hymn of praise for every

something else there is and ever was and will be:


     the song growing louder and rising.


          (Listen, I too believed it was a dream.)

please hang away from direct exposure to harsh light (natural/artificial) as well as direct heat source and areas of high moisture