Kathleen’s first basket was created in a seventh grade art class. Woven with rattan vine, it became one of many she wove. With few or no books on the topic, she relied on a few craft articles and experimentation. Mostly self-taught, Kathleen has taken workshops from well-known traditional weavers such as Frances James, Bruce Miller, and Anna Jefferson, as well as Margaret Matthewson.
She is influenced by memorable times spent enjoying the colors, scents, and textures found camping and hiking in the Pacific Northwest outdoors and continues to seek out the grasses, vines, roots, and barks nature provides. Many rewarding years of weaving is due to the variety of textures and tones, shapes, forms, and patterns that plant materials offer which Kathleen so well utilizes in her baskets.
Her twenty-five year career as an elementary school teacher provided opportunities for integrating basket weaving with social studies of early cultures and their environment.
Kathleen has received recognition for her basketry through various juried exhibitions, shows, and media.
Important Exhibitions, Shows, Media :
Kenai Art Guild 20th Annual Juried Art Show, Kenai, Alaska1986, First Place Mixed Media
“Basket Weave” Juried National Exhibition, Athens, Ohio 1988
Beaverton Arts Showcase Juried Exhibition, Beaverton, Oregon1988,1998
“Celebration of Creativity” Fine Art Exhibit and Sale, Beaverton,Oregon 1990, 2003, 2014
Oregonian, Home and Garden Northwest, NW Artisans, “To Have and to Hold”, story and photos by Nanine Alexander, March 6, 2008
Oregon Public Broadcasting “Art Beat” featured artist, February 2009