Where my Words & Images Come Together

I’ve found bookmaking to be the perfect medium for channeling my visual-­literary passions simultaneously.  I may start out with an idea for one kind of book, but the finished piece is always a surprise.  All I have to do is trust my creative process implicitly and not be attached to outcomes.   Forget about making perfect art.  It’s all about showing up on the page and keeping the exchange between artist and audience real, from the heart.  And if the work touches people even a little bit, then that’s cool, too.

I am eternally grateful to the woman who first taught me the technical aspects of the craft—master bookmaker Rebecca Childers—and the woman who taught me how to breathe a book alive— Kendra Kopelke, poet, professor, and Director of the University of Baltimore’s Master of Fine Arts Creative Writing Program.  Her classes really opened my mind to the possibilities of what a book can be: an experience.  Ache