Artist's Statement - Wool Sculpture

I was born in Colorado, though for 20 years my home/studio has been in San Francisco and Mill Valley, California. My mother was a secretary/bookkeeper who also excelled as a seamstress and upholsterer. My father was a professional photographer both in his private life and in the U.S. Air Force. Perhaps I inherited his artistic eye. I have been drawn to art since the moment I first held a crayon in my chubby little hand. My range of art related fields has been vast and rather than bore you to death with my credentials and accomplishments, or the many mediums and techniques I have employed, I would rather just talk about felting Dogs in raw sheeps wool.

The medium of felted wool has such a beguiling presence. I find it particularly well suited to the task of realistically depicting the warmth and charming characters that canines are noted for. More common choices for sculpture, such as metal, stone, plaster and marble are characterized by a hard, cold appearance while wool is soft, pliable, textured, and is always warm and inviting.

Sculpting in wool involves a similar approach to sculpting in traditional materials in that it employs both reductive and additive processes. I process all of the raw sheep's wool used in my sculptures by hand to ensure full control of my medium and to maintain the integrity of the fibers. I love the waxen feel of the natural lanolin in the wool as I process the fibres and ready them to become a life-like work of art. The sculpting process is extremely time and labor intensive as the loose wool fibers are firmly compacted and sculpted into shape using only a single barbed needle. I am continually surprised by the many ways in which this simple material and technique is able to transcend any other medium I have used.

In my sculptures, I endeavor to capture the spirit or soul of my subjects, providing each finished piece with a most remarkable and recognizable likeness that is true-to-life. Combining my passion for the canine with this natural, organic medium has brought such joy to my life. Since my first Dog, in May of 2004, they have come almost like magic, one after the other, with leaps and bounds out of the piles of wool. I am so grateful for this opportunity to express my love for "woman's best friend" using this fascinating medium. I am also eternally grateful for the love, support and encouragement of my partner, Bruce, without whom, Fog City Designs might never have come to be.

I look forward to creating many, many more of my felted Dogs for your enjoyment and will be expanding the Fog City Designs line to include:

• One-Of-A-Kind, hand sculpted Art Dolls in various materials, sizes, ethnicities and ages
• Original fashion ensembles designed for popular collectible Dolls
• Unique Art For Dolls

I hope you will return to these pages often to share in the growth and development of Fog City Designs.

My 11-year old granddaughter, Raechel, is my protege.

Bull Terriers "Luna" and "Astro". These two Bull Terriers are the result of a felting lesson I gave to my very talented and patient granddaughter who shares my extreme passion for Dogs and a fascination for creating. I made one of the Terriers and Raechel followed along making the other. I will not tell you which one she made! This talented little gal's first award for art came at age 6 with her creation of an Arbor Day poster.