Red Emma’s

Books and art, words and images. That mostly sums it up. Even when making quilts, I add words and/or images. I make artist books. I read books. I own a bookstore. I do letterpress printing. I print on fabric, paper, bubble wrap, leather, ribbon, clothes. Was it reading as a child that started me on this long path lined with books and words? Was it years of teaching that developed this focus on words and images? And the stitching. Sewing artist books, embroidering words. For thirteen years every Friday, I sat around a quilt frame with older women in Montana quilting. Stitching as a prayer, as community, as mediation, as a gift.

Art is the warp in my life. The weft has been many things over the years creating patterns and contrasts. Teaching, work as a cook, community development, travel, the bookstore. In my seventh decade, there are striking designs to look back on, to inspire, to enrich what I want to make with my art now.

Many places that also add to the designs. Eight states, time in Romania, teaching in the Czech Republic, travel on six continents. With the bookstore, plying the US back and forth to more than forty states. Where is home you might ask? That would be another project. For now, I am based. in Baltimore with her neighborhoods, arts, diverse cultures and seafood.

For now, I am making art.