All five of my Christmas tree seeds have sprouted! Woo hoo!! At our 2025 Thanksgiving dinner, my cousin Jaimie gave each of us cousins kits to grow our own Christmas trees. We have been sharing our progress in a group chat and then will bring them to Christmas dinner where they will be judged on... Continue Reading →
This Thanksgiving, one of my cousins launched a creative holiday challenge to each member of the family who came to our holiday gathering for dinner: Grow Your Own Christmas Tree. Jaimie gave each of us a kit that included Austrian Pine Tree seeds, a peat planting medium and a little metal planting pot. Then she... Continue Reading →
I am excited and honored to be the 2024 Artist- in-Residence at the Slate Valley Museum in Granville, NY! This residency is an experiment that will allow me to explore how my interdisciplinary Eco-Garden Project series, with community engagement that usually takes place outside in my backyard, in a neighborhood setting, can be successfully translated... Continue Reading →
The Mustard Seed Project seemed quite simple in the beginning. A dried mustard "tree" from my garden prompted an exploration into how "faith the size of a mustard seed" can move mountains. But my mind quickly became cluttered with recent news on the two current wars as well as the ongoing political conflict within our... Continue Reading →
Since my recent presentation and exhibition of "The White Mulberry Project: A Silk Road Runs Through It," I've been contemplating which of the 70+ species of plants discovered in my backyard I should work on next. I prefer to have the plant come to me rather than my chasing after it, so I simply stayed... Continue Reading →
For those of you who missed the in-person event, "The White Mulberry Project: A Silk Road Runs Through It" in August 2023, here's the video! Pull up a chair, brew some White Mulberry Tea and enjoy! Huge thanks to Will and Ally at W Beyer Creative who spent the day with us to film and... Continue Reading →
What an extraordinary day! The presentation and exhibition of The White Mulberry Project: A Silk Road Runs Through It took place in my backyard "mulberry grove" last Saturday. It was supposed to rain but the sun came out (only over Whitehall, apparently) just in time for my presentation and we had the perfect weather for... Continue Reading →
The surprising little "grove" of white mulberry trees that appeared in my backyard during a rewilding project sparked an exploration that led to the discovery of their link to the silk industry: their leaves are the primary source of food for the Bombyx mori silkworm that weaves a cocoon of the finest silk thread in... Continue Reading →
I've been thinking about what to do with the tall grass I had allowed to grow in the backyard (which generated a fair amount of speculation in my neighborhood). It's part of a Monarch Sanctuary I started last year when I heard monarch butterflies were on the Endangered Species List. I allowed the grass... Continue Reading →
Thanks to everyone who helped me with my foraging efforts for art supplies, my Earthpod artwork for The White Mulberry Project is evolving nicely! The goal for this foraged artwork is to explore the white mulberry tree's most striking characteristics and to see how they can be transformed. Now that I've had a little practice... Continue Reading →
Now I'm getting to the fun part of the White Mulberry Project: foraging for my art supplies! I've researched the history of the tree with its connection to the silk trade in China, how it arrived in the United States and, locally for me, its roots in the economic history of my hometown of Whitehall,... Continue Reading →
When a small grove of white mulberry trees sprouted in my backyard during a rewilding project, my research led to the discovery of their link to the silk industry established in China over 4,000 years ago. The leaves of the white mulberry (Morus alba) are the primary foodsource of the Bombyx mori silkworm, which produces... Continue Reading →
This White Mulberry Earthpod is one of two artworks-in-progress created for The White Mulberry Project: A Silk Road Runs Through It to be presented on August 26, 2023 in my studio's Eco-Garden in upstate New York. I decided to use a gourd as the foundation for this piece as the form represents the roots of... Continue Reading →
Since the surprising discovery of (non-native) white mulberry trees in my backyard in Whitehall, NY, I began to research their link to the silk industry, particularly the Champlain Silk Mills in Whitehall which flourished from the late 1800s through the early 1950s. Silkworms arrived in Virginia as early as 1613 as the Chinese silk industry... Continue Reading →
Whew! My white mulberry trees are budding for their second year! After I pruned them last November, I was a bit concerned I may have over-done it. But here they are, having survived not only my pruning but having been underground in a yard that had been mowed for over 60 years. They are impressively... Continue Reading →
EXCITING NEWS! I am thrilled to have been awarded a $10,000 New York State Rural & Traditional Arts Fellowship administered by the Arts Council for Wyoming County in partnership with the New York State Council on the Arts. I will create two sculptural works of art from my Eco-Garden Project and exhibit them in a... Continue Reading →
This is my front lawn. Since we had such a mild winter the ground never froze, so every time I had my driveway snowplowed, the blade scraped up stones and dirt from the driveway, ripped up the lawn and deposited the whole, snowy mess in the middle of the front yard...right where I had carefully... Continue Reading →
WINTER March 2023 We are still in the grasp of winter here in northeastern New York State. We had a few glimpses of spring which made me want to get out and start playing in the dirt - but alas, my cat Snowball (and the groundhog Punxsutawney Phil) both saw their shadows on Groundhog Day,... Continue Reading →
Fall is a prelude to hibernation for many animals, myself included. Although for many it is a time for gearing up for the holidays, I always find the annual "Thanksgiving - Christmas - New Year's" bustle to be counter-intuitive to my natural rhythm, which wants to slow down in preparation for "a long winter's nap."... Continue Reading →
By the end of August my little grove of surprise white mulberry trees were already as high as the windows on the house. They grew fast! Even more surprising, they appeared in a patch of lawn that had been consistently mowed for over sixty years! How did they survive that long underground? Plus they didn't... Continue Reading →
It all began with No Mow May. Although it's a pollinator movement popularized by Plantlife in the UK and a very good reason to refrain from mowing until later in the spring, I had an ulterior motive for allowing the lawn to grow until June: I wanted to expand my Eco-Garden Project research to... Continue Reading →
I'm starting to work on larger sculptures, but finding large gourds is becoming a challenge - and shipping is increasingly expensive. So even though I live in the North Country of upstate New York where our short growing season makes it all but impossible to grow oversized gourds, I am determined to try growing my... Continue Reading →
Scrolling through the internet for a research project late one night, I came across this jaw-dropping photo that practically took my breath away. When I read the accompanying story, I learned it was a massive flaming gas crater in the middle of a desert in Turkmenistan nicknamed the "Gateway to Hell." Conflicting stories abound as... Continue Reading →
Five tiny crocuses appeared on my front lawn in March 2022. I remember seeing them from time to time throughout the years. No one had bothered with them for a long time and the bulbs are supposed to be separated every four years so they can continue blooming. I'm surprised they continue to come up... Continue Reading →
These little white snowdrops appeared on my front lawn in March in 2022 once the snow left the ground. I remember seeing their green foliage in clumps scattered about the front yard where my Mom used to have a flower garden in previous years but never noticed any flowers since the lawn was always mowed... Continue Reading →
EXCELLENT NEWS! I just finished Riverbowl III and am excited to announce the piece been acquired by The Folklife Center at Crandall Library in Glens Falls, NY for their collection. Thank you to Todd DeGarmo, Founding Director. I am celebrating this great honor! It took me three months to finish the piece. As I was working... Continue Reading →
"What is the Coronavirus doing on my Christmas card?" I said aloud as I opened the envelope, immediately recognizing the familiar image of the virus. As we stand at the threshhold of 2022, looking warily at a potential third year of living with COVID, a fabric artist in upstate New York fearlessly tapped into the... Continue Reading →
George Forss was one in a million. When I heard of his recent passing at the age of 80, I crumbled in disbelief. George was one of those artists you just assume will live forever. He was a self-taught photographer selling his black-and-white photos on the streets of New York City in the seventies before... Continue Reading →
There's something special about finding a plant that one remembers from childhood especially when it's rather uncommon. I used to see this flower in the vegetable garden as a child (and of course, we'd pull it up!) but it was never as invasive as other plants. It was always a rare and magical find, its... Continue Reading →
This started out as a simple dream of making homemade wine. It turned into an exploration I never expected. My first taste of dandelion wine was disappointing. One of my cousins used to make it every year and it always tasted like pure rot-gut. It wasn't until I met a 70-year-old Italian in Montreal's Little... Continue Reading →
