One of my earliest memories was joining my mom and a family friend on summer trips to antique stores looking for quilts. While textiles didn’t hold a strong interest for me at the time (I liked collecting old colored glass bottles), I always appreciated the different patterns and intricate handwork that went into these well-loved gems.

My earliest creative pursuits began in art class (my favorite subject for nearly all of my childhood), and with painting lessons at a young age. My path has been a winding one ever since, but with a thread of creative expression always at its core. I started playing violin at age 8, only to later earn two music degrees in voice, which launched an over-decade-long career as an opera and choral singer. Yoga and meditation inspired my late 20s and I spent the next 8 years studying and teaching in the New York area. In 2014 I took my first ceramics class, which ignited my interest in working with my hands. I subsequently spent time working out of the late American ceramicist Toshiko Takaezu’s studio in rural New Jersey, which further compounded my interest in the intersection between the sculptural and the functional.

It wasn’t until the COVID-19 pandemic that I picked up a needle and thread, and yet working with textiles feels like a homecoming. In drawing from facets of my former creative lives, I seek to better understand myself and the world around me.