Pisces Woman 17: Holding Striped Fish, 2010

In the mid-1980's I joined an artists' coop in downtown Holland, Michigan, called Black River Gallery---a great group of men and women.  That's where I really started making dolls and working on all different techniques using fabric to express me and the world around me and how I see it.  During my first year in the gallery, I wove tiny (3"x5") keyhole landscape tapestries using bundles of sewing thread.  There were many times when I wanted to be comical or outrageously humorous in the tapestries but I couldn't sustain the humor since tapestry is very labor and time intensive.  But when I began making dolls, the expressive quality of a 3-D figure in fabric was immediately satisfying.  (I did later go back and combine my tapestries and dollmaking, but that's another story for later.)

With the encouragement of the fellow artists in the gallery, I explored, experimented and developed my textile work, especially with the annual shows that each member received.