My fascination with textiles is the core of my work; I’m an artist and independent curator and many of the shows I’ve curated focused on textiles. As a student at the Ontario College of Art and Design I curated Under the Same Sky – an exhibit of garments from the collection of the Textile Museum of Canada at Harbourfront Centre in Toronto and for the past fourteen years I’ve been co-curating Hard Twist, and annual show of textile-based art at Toronto’s Gladstone Hotel which is a fascinating combination of hotel and arts incubator. We’ve started work on this year’s edition!

My own work often combines textiles, photography and digital collage like this piece:

It’s a scarf design based on shots of my home territory, Kensington Market in Toronto, Canada.

The Market is an odd, creative enclave in the heart of the city that combines a fiercely independent small-business community with an equally fierce and independent community of residents who are a wild mix of artists, recent immigrants, university students, staff and faculty, the homeless, the marginally-housed, lawyers, not-so-recent immigrants, film industry execs and little old ladies.

I share my house with a studio full of eclectic materials, far too much work in progress, a small, furry “helper” named Ferocity and, when not up to my ears in matters textile, I’m a writer, mother, community activist, gardener, grandmother, historical recreationist and science fiction fan. I also volunteer with the  Kensington Market Action Committee, play with the Toronto branch of the Society for Creative Anachronism – and occasionally work on my fabriholic.com  and redefininglittleoldlady.com blogs.