• Studio Musings

• Why Skunk Hill Studio?

• The Process

• Free Motion Quilting Basics
• Photo Essay - Dyeing Threads

• Tools and Materials

• Thread Primer

Studio Musings

A free-wheeling collection of articles on life as a working artist, information on art work that wouldn't fit inside the gallery pages, info on site updates, and anything else that I think pertains to art and might be of interest to someone else.

Why Skunk Hill Studio

I get this question a lot, so I thought I'd start off this section with the story of how I chose my studio's name.

Back in Missouri, when I was first gathering the nerve to make a go of it as a working artist, I decided my studio (simply an extra room in my home) needed a name. Names have power, names make things real - and I need all the power, all the help I could get because I was doing one of the scariest things I'd ever done.

The main source of inspiration in my work is nature, so I wanted a name that connected to the natural world, a name that was place appropriate. I started looking around, cataloging my surroundings. I lived on a small hill in an old residential district with lots of mature trees and a fair bit of wildlife. I considered maples and oaks, redbuds and dogwood, squirrels and rabbits, even deer. But none seemed quite right.

Then early one morning, a skunk came to visit our backyard. It was so much fun to watch - a curious creature, investigating everything, though it ignored me. It went about its business, meandering around the backyard, checking out the flowers, the garden, the molehills, everything! Other animals which wandered into our yard would startle at my presence. The skunk was fearless in its inquiries, not aggressive, just going about its business with a playful air of confidence and assurance I could only envy. And I knew I had found my name - Skunk Hill Studio - named after a small, brave, curious animal who spoke to my heart.

Moving to Seattle, I considered renaming my studio. I still live on a hill, though this one's a bit bigger. Whether we have skunks in the neighborhood is a little less certain. But I'm still encouraged by the memory of that fearless explorer, still striving for its confidence and assurance, and my curiosity surely has not slackened. The skunk reminds me to have fun as I go along - to sniff the flowers, to check out the cool lichen on that bit of bark, and above all else, to have the courage to create the art that is in me to create. And so my studio remains Skunk Hill Studio.