A fiber artist who works on harness looms, Ms. Kinnison likes to combine fiber and clay. She creates hand-built ceramics (vs. wheel-thrown), adding wire, beading, bamboo and fiber, thus creating art pieces that are both visual and tactile and have important design elements as well as
texture. An elementary school librarian by day, she has been weaving and doing fiber art since 1974, and became interested in ceramics in 1988 after taking a pottery class. Besides showing in galleries, she has done commissioned fiber pieces for Allan Hancock College, Union Oil, Vandenberg Federal Credit Union, Vandenberg Air Force Base Officer's Club in California and In Your Ear Recording Studios in Richmond, Virginia.

Thoughts…

Designs in nature always inspire me. Animal prints have always been a favorite of mine, but I tend to use them within graphic lines. I'm amazed that something so stark -- only two colors -- can have so much beauty and design. The raffia seems the perfect finish to give this "Animal Print" mask a Serengeti flavor.