I grew up on the east coast. At forty-two I had put behind me twenty years as a pharmacist, and thirteen years of good California living to move to Portland, Oregon and enroll in the BFA program at Oregon College of Art & Craft.

 

My humours had been out of whack for a while, it was becoming very clear to me that something was about to burst when I booked a trip to Paris and spent the week running from museum to gallery and back soaking in as much art as possible. When I got back I announced,"I'm quitting my job and going to art school." Bracing myself for gales of laughter and offers to take me to somewhere where I could get a little help, I found just the opposite from my friends, "We wondered when you were going to figure that out! What a great plan! You go girl!"

 

I enrolled in the fiber program at OCAC and soon found my rekindled love (a romance that had developed in my early twenties) for the wood shop. I had always spent time with various forms of fiber work growing up. In later years I had found the allure of the wood shop by taking classes at night. I was soon to discover that both crafts would provide the opportunity of expressing myself through pattern, texture and color.

 

While at school my favorite projects were of two types, those that talked about my travel throughout the world through the people and cultures I met AND those projects that referenced both fiber and wood techniques together. I guess it is no surprise that the work I still enjoy today the most includes both these themes.

 

You can reach me at info@peggyharkins.com