Kinniska Designs
Please bear with
this landing page while in the days and weeks to come,
I’ll be setting up the
real home for Kinniska
Designs.
Works are currently in progress, preparing them for presentation here.
I’m an artist working in (very) mixed media. In essence, I may have an idea that prompts me to begin a project or research the idea within one discipline (e.g., fiber, paint, wood, paper) and as I work through the idea, I may end up somewhere completely different. Photography, clay, metals, masks, sculpture, driftwood and woodworking, watercolor, papermaking and hand-bound books, fiber arts. I grew up in a house with a woodworking shop in the basement, an eight-harness loom in the living room, and eight-foot bookshelves wherever they'd fit. My work is informed by my knowledge of ancient civilizations, and I’m constantly inspired by the amazing traditions of artists and artisans both close to home and the world over.
How did I get this way? It’s a long story – but here’s the summary:
Like so many of us, I held down a waitressing gig that helped me pay my Art
College tuition. The difference is that I worked for a large Chinese restaurant,
regularly baffling the patrons because I … wasn’t Chinese. I traipsed around
with my notebooks and my camera (a Pentax K1000 SLR). Soon I bought an aging
jeep, a brick of film, a box of tools, and spent a few months driving across the
United States. A woman? Travel? Alone? Of COURSE! Yes, alone, in a jeep that
doesn’t lock. Mostly I camped places, and everyone I met along the way – almost
everyone – was helpful, friendly, or at least interesting.
Art college somehow turned into an economics major and a plan to work at poverty
alleviation through microfinance; meanwhile my work life brought me into
accounting and importing, then later technical editing and data management.
I
studied Chinese at night, and bought an array of foreign language dictionaries
that made my acquaintances shake their heads in dismay. The planets aligned! A
cheap ticket, and I had both time and some funds for a trip: I roped a friend
into coming with me on a mad train-trek around Europe in the dead of winter,
confusing Czechs, frustrating the French, and vexing grouchy cafeteria ladies in
Vienna. Later, I muddled my way through Mexico.
I’ve spent a year living and studying at Sichuan University in China. I
backpacked my way around Cambodia, Thailand, Laos, and Vietnam. I’ve made my way
from city to village to city to mountaintop and back to village again, on
trains, buses, tuk-tuks,
songthaews,
planes, rattle-trap taxis, pedi-cabs, trucks driven by over-earnest 15-year old
boys, boats of varying vintage and structural integrity, as well as on bicycle
and by foot. Malaria, dengue fever, political unrest, GRE exams and marriage
proposals all variously derailed attempts to travel in the company of friends,
so rather than sit at home, in my dorm, or at my apartment, I packed my backpack
and made my plans.
I have never regretted it.
Traveling is uncomfortable and fraught with risk, sleep deprivation,
importunities and imposition, but it’s also a fantastic opportunity to look at
the world from a different
perspective. Maybe it’s because I read too many National Geographic magazines as
a kid, but I’m not satisfied with being a passive observer. I traveled alone, sometimes with
a purpose, and sometimes getting stranded or lost. I have found that being alone
makes me approachable: people stopped and spoke to me; they included me in their
jokes and conversations, even when we had a language barrier; they tried to help
me (whether I needed it or not); they included me in their lives in a way that
uniquely altered my perspective. A smile and simple good manners have served me
well across a lot of miles.
So when I read my morning paper, feeling cynical and discouraged about the state
of human affairs, my experiences traveling remind me that most people aren’t as
bad as the headlines lead us to believe, not by a long stretch. I continue to
balance my professional and my artistic life; this site is intended to give me a
forum to present some of the images from my travels, as well as various artwork
inspired by what I’ve seen so far.
Your thoughts and comments are welcome.
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