Craft in America

Simon Rodia's Towers in Watts, they've served as inspiration. He found objects and put them together. Subconsciously that aroused my creative energy. I'm really interested in the power of materials.

All these little bits and pieces they call to me like I'm being abandoned, come and get me. We are our practices, our traditions, and our culture. This Hmong needle work, it's not in a book where you can find it. My pieces are influenced by work that's come in the past.

Where can I take this, that's a question that I'm always asking. My work addresses the inner self, how I want to be in the world. Once I sit down at the loom, mentally I go somewhere else. It's that single strand being able to accomplish these great feats.