Born: Stockholm, Sweden

Education: BFA Parsons School of Design

Parsons in Paris

Textilgården, Stockholm

 

My work ranges from weaving to painting. However, there is something profoundly sensuous about weaving a tapestry that is entirely different from the application of paint onto a surface.  The continuous manipulation of yarn onto vertical threads of cotton or linen… creating a fabric with one’s hands and fingers engaged… it’s an interplay of mind and body, realizing the abstraction of a concept into the tactile creation of something very real.  It is irresistible, and as the piece builds the more one senses and anticipates its completion.

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Painting, though physical in a different way from weaving, also has an alluring quality, particularly when working with oil.  Its slippery quality blending into a completely new color is magical, unlike the blending with yarn which becomes pixelated.

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Whether weaving or painting, I tend to work in series where I lock onto an idea and explore it from various angles and perspectives.  The work has been figurative and abstract as well as grid-based and image/portrait based.

 

Growing up in Sweden, I was exposed to various fiber work and painting by family members.  Knitting, crocheting, sewing, embroidering were done by prominent women in my life - my mother, maternal grandmother, and aunt - as well as painting and printmaking by my great uncle.

 

While originally starting out as a painter, my focus once at Parsons School of Design, was Fiber Art.  By senior year, I was working in the tapestry studio of one of my teachers, Michelle Lester, and continued after graduation for several years as her Studio Manager.

 

Following this, I worked with art dealers, Frank Maresca and Roger Ricco as well as with William Greenspon, before stepping back to raise a family and take on full time corporate work.

 

The act of creating is an irrepressible need for me.  I toggle between tapestry and painting.  Curiosity dictates the direction I take.  There is always cross-fertilization between the two.  When I decide to weave a tapestry, I know I am committed to a project that will take a considerable period of time due to the labor intensive work inherent in the technique.  While decisions and changes happen during the weaving process, the imagery is essentially set since I always work from a drawing.  Painting is typically faster and decisions and changes  can occur at any time allowing it to evolve from an original plan to something entirely different.  Ruminating on which direction I decide to go in next is what is exciting and inspiring as I approach a piece.