I’m an artist and educator based in Urbana, Maryland, and I’ve been making things for as long as I can remember. Drawing, painting, fiber, felting, stitching — I move between fine art and craft pretty freely, and I’ve never really seen them as separate things. Good work is good work.

I have an MFA from Cranbrook Academy of Art and a BFA from the University of the Arts in Philadelphia, both with a focus in fiber and crafts. I started teaching professionally in 2008 and haven’t stopped since — through galleries, theater programs,

munity organizations, and schools. Right now I teach visual arts at an IB World School in Maryland and run small-group clubs and workshops for kids through my own studio program.

The thing I keep coming back to is community. Every group I’ve worked with is different — different ages, different backgrounds, different relationships to making — and I think the best teaching happens when you actually pay attention to that. I’m not interested in a one-size-fits-all curriculum. I want to know what’s going to land with the people in the room, and build from there.

I genuinely believe everyone can make something worth keeping. Not because art is easy, but because the act of making — choosing a color, pulling a stitch, figuring out what you’re trying to say — does something real to people. I’ve watched it happen with five-year-olds and adults, with kids who thought they couldn’t draw and parents who surprised themselves at a workshop. It still gets me every time.

The friendships and relationships I’ve built through teaching are some of the best in my life. That part never gets old either.