It may seem that I have two very different personas, one relating to my artwork and spiritual deepening, and one relating to an academic career in design history. I’ve always been a synthesizer, and each part enriches the other.
I retired in 2012 from 30 years as a professor in the Design Studies Department at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. In retirement, my attention is focused ever-more firmly on deep seeing and exploration of the inner and intuitive world—the more mythic, spiritual realms. This pervades my creative work and is the underpinning of my workshops. My art typically involves reconfiguration and re-contextualization—repositioning and reusing images in collage, for example, and recycling and re-imagining natural materials such as bone, shell, and driftwood, and using them in sculptural or relief assemblage. (My poetry is more about full attention to what is unfolding.) I facilitate workshops that help participants use writing and art-making to access their own intuitive and deep-seated wisdom. I am a trained facilitator of SoulCollage®, and also offer writing workshops and nature collage experiences.
My professional life in design has also been rich. I started as a fiber artist, and worked in museums as an exhibit curator and textile interpreter (several years at Hancock Shaker Village in the 1970s helped lead me to think about the intersection of the material and spiritual environment—and I’ve been concerned with it ever since.) At UW-Madison I taught classes relating to our designed environment: textile and fashion history and appreciation, and world dress; material culture; global perspectives on design and culture; design thinking and problem-solving. My scholarly research focused on the meanings of objects in people’s lives. I still offer lectures and participatory workshops and am available to teach ongoing classes.
I am a prolific writer— click here for a full publication list. My 2011 opus, Textiles: The Whole Story: Uses, Meanings, Significance (AKA The Fiber of Our Lives: Why Textiles Matter) is a heavily illustrated art book that approaches the subject comprehensively, across the world and across time. My scholarly articles have focused on topics as diverse as the meanings of souvenirs or a “backstage women’s space”—a community bathroom in the building where I worked. I also write poetry (so far unpublished) and am working on a new book that combines personal narrative, artwork, and discoveries about the natural environment.
I retired in 2012 from 30 years as a professor in the Design Studies Department at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. In retirement, my attention is focused ever-more firmly on deep seeing and exploration of the inner and intuitive world—the more mythic, spiritual realms. This pervades my creative work and is the underpinning of my workshops. My art typically involves reconfiguration and re-contextualization—repositioning and reusing images in collage, for example, and recycling and re-imagining natural materials such as bone, shell, and driftwood, and using them in sculptural or relief assemblage. (My poetry is more about full attention to what is unfolding.) I facilitate workshops that help participants use writing and art-making to access their own intuitive and deep-seated wisdom. I am a trained facilitator of SoulCollage®, and also offer writing workshops and nature collage experiences.
My professional life in design has also been rich. I started as a fiber artist, and worked in museums as an exhibit curator and textile interpreter (several years at Hancock Shaker Village in the 1970s helped lead me to think about the intersection of the material and spiritual environment—and I’ve been concerned with it ever since.) At UW-Madison I taught classes relating to our designed environment: textile and fashion history and appreciation, and world dress; material culture; global perspectives on design and culture; design thinking and problem-solving. My scholarly research focused on the meanings of objects in people’s lives. I still offer lectures and participatory workshops and am available to teach ongoing classes.
I am a prolific writer— click here for a full publication list. My 2011 opus, Textiles: The Whole Story: Uses, Meanings, Significance (AKA The Fiber of Our Lives: Why Textiles Matter) is a heavily illustrated art book that approaches the subject comprehensively, across the world and across time. My scholarly articles have focused on topics as diverse as the meanings of souvenirs or a “backstage women’s space”—a community bathroom in the building where I worked. I also write poetry (so far unpublished) and am working on a new book that combines personal narrative, artwork, and discoveries about the natural environment.