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I am so excited to be a part of the Variations Fiber Art show at the Washburn Cultural Center. I was invited to join and seeing the list of other artists who will be participating, it feels like a great honor to be among such talented artists. While I did exhibit somework when I was in high school (had I chosen to go to college after high school it would have been for art), this is my debut gallery show as an adult. And what’s even more exciting is that this is just the first of four gallery exhibitions I’ve got lined up for 2024 so far, and that’s not even including the quilt I’ve entered into the MN Quilt Show!

Each person in the Variations show will be exhibiting three pieces. I decided that I would make three brand new pieces, and that they’d be a part of my Water Protector series and feature waters threatened by Enbridge’s Line 5 oil pipeline. This is such an important issue and it felt like a great opportunity to use my voice and this public platform to help educate others in our area about the threat this pipeline poses to our communities, lands, and waters.

The Line 5 pipeline was built in 1953 prior to environmental protections being in place and is 645 miles in length, originating in Superior, WI and terminating in Sarnia, Ontario. As the pipeline traverses northern Wisconsin, it crosses below the rivers that nourish Lake Superior. With the more extreme weather events happening in our region due to climate change, increased flood events which erode and scour these river channels are occurring more frequently and pose an increased risk for an oil spill.

The documentary, Bad River: A Story of Defiance, premiered over the past couple of months and shows how Endbridge is just one more example of colonization threatening Aanishinaabe communities and cultural traditions.

My hope is that these works serve as a call to action to shut down Line 5. Water is life.

For more info check out these resources:

Threats & Challenges – Bad River Tribe (badriver-nsn.gov)

Line 5 | Sierra Club

My friends and family know that when I set my mind to something, I really go for it. That’s been the case with my sewing and as proof, I’m excited to share that I’ve got four gallery shows lined up for 2024!

First up, is the group show Variations hosted by the Washburn Cultural Center which I was invited to participate in. The show will be up from June with the Opening Reception Thursday, June 6th. I’m really honored to be a part of this show with so many other established local artists.

I’m making three new pieces for the show that will be a part of my Water Protector series and am excited to showcase them in such a public way!

Next up, I found out on Friday that I piece I submitted for consideration in a group show at the Prøve Gallery in Duluth was accepted! This piece, Convergence, is about my experience joining thousands of others from around the globe in 2016 at the Oceti Sakowin Camp on the Standing Rock Reservation to stand up for the water. Mini wiconi. Water is life. The prompt for this show was to show how “X” is used as a powerful symbol of intersectionality and social change. This show will run from mid-June through July and the date for the Opening Reception will be shared in the coming weeks.

Third, in September I’m going to have a solo show at Honest Dog Books as part of Bayfield’s Art Escape events! The pieces that I’ll put up will include my full size map quilts as well as smaller map pieces stretched over canvas. Yet, the thing I’m most excited about with this opportunity is that I’m holding two events along with the exhibition. On Sunday, September 8th I’m hosting a “Mini Sewn Adventure Map” Workshop from 9 – 12pm in which people will be able to learn techniques to make their own 6″ x 6″ mini sewn adventure map to take home!

Then, on Thursday, September 12th I’m giving an artist talk called “Adventures Stories Told Through Quilts” where I’ll give an engaging presentation with lots of pictures showing how my adventures through life now translate into the pieces that I make. It’s going to be such a fun night!

Lastly, I’m going to be the featured artist at the Chequamegon Bay Food Coop the whole month of November! I’ll have a ton of work up in the store’s gallery just in time for your holiday shopping, so that will be fun too!

If you hear of any galleries seeking submissions for shows that you think might be up my alley, please reach out! I’d love to keep broadening the reach of my work!

I made this quilt for a friend of mine who’s been going through cancer treatment this past year, hoping that the quilt would offer her some extra tenderness and care.

I chose to feature the Kickapoo River because it’s a river she and and I joyously canoed some summer afternoon years and years ago while drinking champagne, telling stories, and laughing.

This is the third quilt in this style that I’ve finished and with each one, I’ve learned some new tricks. With this one, I again used a reverse applique technique where I cut out the river channel as I turned the raw edges under and sewed them down. I’ve found that with this approach, the accuracy of the meander river channel stays more true than if I were to just cut out the channel and applique it on top of the background fabric. Likewise, I like the depth that this method creates as it adds to the feel of the river channel being lower in elevation than the surrounding uplands.

This quilt is entirely hand sewn including the extensive quilting showing the towns of Viola and La Farge, the river channel, and the complex topography of the driftless region. After washing it, the gauze fabric became even soften with the wonderful crinkly texture created by all the quilting–just what I’d hoped!