My childhood developed in a normal way in Wheeling, West Virginia, until the age of 5 when I decided to become an artist and ride horses in the mountains.  I begged my parents to borrow ponies from neighbors and quickly learned to ride bare back with a halter.  This began my lifelong journey riding horses and creating art in the backcountry of the American West.    

At 15, I added to my goals the intention to live in nature in a simple hunter-gatherer-gardener life and for 40-years I’ve lived completely off the grid in Montana, Wyoming, and Idaho. 

At West Illinois University, I studied theatrical costuming and various art forms and settled on sculpture as my preferred medium. I was fortunate to have an instructor who was also an art dealer specializing in primitive art.  He allowed me access to study his small collection of pre-Columbian artifacts and in his collection was a small case of Native American art—mostly beadwork.  But a few pieces of porcupine quill embroidery completely captured my imagination. I knew I had found my life‘s calling and withdrew from the University.  For the next year I worked as a welder’s apprentice at the Caterpillar tractor factory and paid off my school loans.

In these early days, there was very little information available on the specialized art form of porcupine quill embroidery. I found one slim volume printed in 1917 that diagrammed completed stitches.  After much searching, I found some proper brain-tanned deer hide to work on, bought my first horse and purchased 10-acres in the back country mountains of Southwest Montana where I lived in a tipi.  

I immersed myself in learning porcupine quill embroidery, native style painting on leather and rawhide, and began hunting and brain-tanning my own deer, elk, and buffalo hides.  On my first pack trip I rode bareback for two nights and three days as I hadn’t bought a saddle yet.   

3-years later I moved to the back country of Wyoming honing all the skills required for the goals I had set in my life. I perfected my tanning techniques to the point where I could supply this essential material to my work. I also traveled coast to coast promoting my painting, quilling and leather work.  I also became more adept and committed to my hunting, gathering, and gardening lifestyle.

In my 30s, a publisher approached me about writing two books. One on beadwork and the other on quill work.  A collector also placed me on retainer to produce almost exclusively for him for 8-years.  This demand for my artwork trained me intensely in perfecting my porcupine quill embroidery and painting.  All through my 30s these two art forms kept me extremely busy. But I had not forgotten my love of riding horses in the back country. So with everything else, I learned the fine art of horse packing.

At 38, I moved to the mountains of Idaho where I live today and my two self illustrated books were published, A Quillwork Companion in 1990 and A Beadwork Companion in 1992. This established my name in the small world of porcupine quill embroidery. Released from my exclusive production contract, I began creating pieces for myself and for a growing clientele.  I also began taking annual pack trips covering 400-500-miles over 30-days.  

For our honeymoon 26-years ago, my husband, Ronzo, and I rode over 1,000 miles on a 3-month pack trip from north eastern Utah to the Canadian border.  We continued to embrace a simple lifestyle modeled on the hunter-gatherer-gardener model living off the grid.  We heat our home and cook with firewood.  This has allowed me to continue perfecting my art.    

My works are held in the permanent collections of the New York State Historical Society Museum, the Three Affiliate Tribes Museum, and the Museum of The Mountain Man in Pinedale, Wyoming.