As a painter I had to think about how the image could be translated into a kite seen from a long distance.  I eventually began to think of the paintings as 3-D relief sculptures.  In that way I could imagine the heavy lines and dark shadows needed for such a distance against the sky. Kitikata paper is translucent, light, with the appearance of tissue paper. This juxtaposition of sculptural images on such weightless paper interested me. As a third component, my images of people came from a desire to give disenfranchised and street-bound creatures a chance to fly.

Greg  Kono showed me how to place the bamboo on the kite, glue it and sew it. It took three hours to build one kite. Kono the master did ingenious 3-D work to make my paintings into kites. Look closely and you will see that even his knots are intricate and gorgeous.  By the way, check out his website at www.konodesign.com.

My favorite day was a beautiful sunny one when we took the blue kite out on Alki Beach in West Seattle and Greg let me pretend I knew how to fly that thing.  What a thrill to see paintings in the air. I’d take it anytime over the stuffiness of a gallery. Our work has traveled internationally and we both  followed it to Oaxaca for the Day of the Dead thanks to the invitation of Francisco Toledo and the Drachen Foundation.

Thanks to Drachen for the funding of this website and the grant to complete the work.

All works mixed media on Kitakata paper