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A Big Beaded Bag

I have been working on a big beaded bag, bit by bit over the last couple months. It is still not done I have to finish the shoulder strap and sew on 1000 pony beads.

  • Beading
  • Bottle cap bead detail
  • My work desk
  • Detail transition between paper and beads
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Strange Fruit

  • Selecting materials is a process
  • Sorting and building by color story
  • Detail view of bottle cap beads
  • The beading draws you in
  • The ribbons are dripping color
  • Strange Fruit
A new body of work inspired by Billy Holiday “Strange Fruit” and the racial protests of 2020.

Southern trees bear a strange fruit,
Blood on the leaves and blood at the root,
Black body swinging in the Southern breeze,
Strange fruit hanging from the poplar trees.

Pastoral scene of the gallant South,
The bulging eyes and the twisted mouth,
Scent of magnolia sweet and fresh,
And the sudden smell of burning flesh!

Here is a fruit for the crows to pluck,
For the rain to gather, for the wind to suck,
For the sun to rot, for a tree to drop,
Here is a strange and bitter crop.

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Kenya Art Residency Update: Turning Lemons into Lemonade

This month, I was supposed to be in Kenya learning beading and basketry techniques but my artists residency with Now Friends was postponed/canceled. Damn you Corona…  

For a little inspiration visit with my Pinterest scrapbook Kenya Residency 2020 board instead.

I have been experimenting all year with recycled materials in preparation for this residency.  I am ready so, switch up and plan B, turning lemons into lemonade mode…

I enrolled in a ZOOM alternative weaving and basketry intensive program at the Textile Arts Center (NYC) later this month. It isn’t Kenya, but I am moving forward advancing my skills using bottle caps, wine corks, plastic bags, ribbon gifted to me by so many of my favorite people. You know who you are.

Watch my Instagram Stories to see how these works progress.