Queen Joker
Victim
Prostitute Gambler
Saboteur
King Guide Servant Judge Mother Child Katharine Dean Vampire
Greenfield NH
I
have played with yarn, thread, fabric, and paper since I was very young. Born into a family of makers and doers – my father taught photography and printmaking, my mother plant-dyed yarns for her weaving – I had access to materials and tools to make anything I could imagine. As a young teen, I was inspired by the quilt making traditions of North Carolina and started making handstitched scrap quilts, and I learned to weave at Penland School of Crafts. I’m a third-generation weaver, and completed an MFA with a focus in textiles in 2015. As a poet and artist, I recently co-curated a collaborative exhibit of Text and Textiles, bringing together artists from the Women’s Caucus for Art with poets selected by the NH Poet Laureate, Alice Fogel. The show traveled to nine libraries in New Hampshire over the course
80
of 2018, and was enhanced by panel discussions, poetry readings, and simple receptions to introduce the collaboration to audiences. For Questions in the Moonlight, I was inspired by the concept of the Seeker archetype, and envisioned lying in a meadow at the top of a hill, watching the moon rise, and being pulled toward its wisdom and magic. The yellow paper was recycled from notes from a difficult time, and I wanted to transform them into something radiant and uplifting. I collect colorful textured papers, combining them with fabrics and stitching to create artist books and wall pieces. This was sparked by a visiting Japanese artist that stayed in our home when I was a little girl, and who showed us how to make Origami using ordinary, interesting, found papers.
