Who I Am

I was once described as a porcelain doll with a spine of steel. I'd like to think that is accurate.

I was born on Halloween 60-odd years ago, in a small town in New Hampshire. My grandfather, an elderly Englishman, thought I was a changeling. I think I am, too. I have never felt that I belonged to this world.

When I was three years old my mother put a #9 crochet hook and a ball of tatting thread in my hands, and I fell in love with finding out what could be created with fabric and thread. Living in the country, I also fell in love with playing outdoors, putting together small constructions from sticks, feathers and moss.  My art as an adult is a continuance of these childhood obsessions.

As an artistic teenager I felt stifled by the restraints of my small town life. I made my escape from New Hampshire at age 17, equipped with a high school diploma, my creativity and a strong sense of rebellion. This naturally led me to the growing punk movement. I eventually settled in Allston, Massachusetts where I lived at 20 Ashford Street, one of the most well-known pieces of Boston punk real estate. I joyfully became the High Priestess of The Holy Order Of Fruitbats, a proto-goth group of the most artistic and interesting women. Profoundly influenced by the music and art around me, those influences still echo in my work today.

I attended Massachusetts College of Art with a Studio For Interrelated Media concentration. I loved the freedom to work in all kinds of materials that SIM encouraged.  I had a difficult time at art school due to a struggle with systemic lupus, which I had been diagnosed with several years previously. Despite this, I was an honors student and feel I put everything I had into my time there. I like to describe my years at MassArt as "The most happy misery I have ever been in".

Since leaving art school I have worked in various media, but always most seriously in fiber, doll arts, beaded flowers and bricolage. I have done shows in Boston, New York, Tennessee and in my adopted home state of Alabama, and I have won a number of awards.

Among other artistic activities over the years, I worked on a mural project with Sidewalk Sam in Boston's North End; designed costumes and props for Imagine That, a traveling children's theatre company; and worked as the production manager for Randall Scott, a clothing designer. I also worked as the surface designer and studio manager for a small pottery company, 3D & Up. My commercial pottery designs were featured at Henri Bendel stores and at the Industry chain of boutiques.

I have been fortunate to be able to travel to places that inspire me artistically, including England, France, Austria, the Netherlands, the Czech Republic, Central America and throughout the southern part of the United States. In the last few years I've made numerous trips to Panama, going into the jungles to help my ichthyologist husband. I've loved every moment of it, even the spiders as big as dinner plates!  

When not doing art, I am mad for gardening, and also work with Huntsville Friends of Rabbits. Over the past fourteen years I have fostered over 250 rabbits, and have found happy homes for almost all of them. In 2010 I was awarded the Alabama Veterinary Medical Association's Bowie-Heath Humanitarian Award for this work. 

Currently I live and work in Huntsville, Alabama. I have a studio in my house which I share with a tiny black rabbit named Spooky and an altar for Oonagh, one of the Irish faery queens. I have been married happily for going-on 35 years to Dr. Bruce Stallsmith, a mad scientist with a love for fish. We spend as much time in New Orleans as possible.