Wildlife Textile Art

Wildlife textile art has become the place where the different parts of my life finally come together. Its where Where Science, Story, and Stitching Meet.

I Began As An Artist

I was always in the art studio in high school. I went to a progressive private school in the early 70’s where we had one subject for six weeks. It was perfect for me and I thrived in that environment.

Upon graduation I studied at the Kansas City Art Institute, long before I knew where my life would take me.

Later, I returned to graduate school and earned my master’s degree in wolf behavior and ecology. I spent years studying wild canids and learning to observe animals in ways that required patience, silence, and an almost heightened awareness of the landscape around me.

I Learned To Look For What Might Easily Be Missed

A track pressed into snow.

A flick of an ear.

A change in the wind.

The place where an animal had passed, even though the animal itself was nowhere in sight.

The Experiences

Those experiences changed the way I see wildlife—and eventually changed the way I create art.

Today, I create wildlife textile art using fabric and thread, combining layers of textile with free-motion stitching to create painterly images of animals and the landscapes they inhabit.

When the Animal Is More Than an Image

But I am not simply trying to capture what an animal looks like.

I want to capture something of what it feels like to encounter one.

Sometimes that begins with a memory.

I remember watching a family of foxes moving among the stones of an old cemetery during my graduate work. I remember a female fox who seemed to carry a small smile on her face as she watched over her young.

I remember standing in the middle of a frozen Minnesota lake in temperatures so cold that, when I stopped moving, I could hear my own heartbeat. I had been breaking trail while searching for wolf tracks. I never saw the wolf. I only saw the evidence of its passage.

And yet, somehow, the animal was very much there.

Those moments continue to find their way into my work.

Thread and Its Purpose

Thread allows me to tell these stories differently. A line of stitching can become the curve of a back, the texture of fur, the movement of grasses, or the subtle transition between an animal and its surroundings. Layer upon layer, fabric and thread build an image that is tactile, dimensional, and alive.

There is something about working with thread that feels especially appropriate for wildlife.

A thread connects one point to another.

So does a track.

So does a scent carried through the woods.

So does memory.

So does our relationship with the wild world.

More Than Observation

My art is rooted in observation, but it is also rooted in wonder. After years of studying wildlife scientifically, I have come to appreciate that there are things we can measure and things we can only experience.

My wildlife textile art lives somewhere in between.

It is where science meets story. Where observation meets intuition. Where fabric becomes landscape and thread becomes paint.

Most Of All

I hope my work gives people a reason to pause.

To look a little longer.

To remember that the wild world is not somewhere far away from us.

It is moving around us all the time.

Sometimes, if we become quiet enough, we can still feel the ancient connection.