Walking up the steps of Selarón’s staircase (Escadaria Selarón) in Rio de Janeiro was like ascending into a fantastical mosaic-tiled heaven. During a recent trip to Brazil, I found the land to be abundant with hidden slices of passionate art and wistful design that I could discover in every shop, neighborhood and street. I stayed […]

I love how sculpture & installation artist, Sandrine Pelletier juxtaposed a horse’s inherent grace and strength with chaotic, haphazard figure lines. These beauties are suspended wool coated with black latex and tar, giving off a feeling of transparent, melting bodies. The skeletal frames first hung in a Geneva gallery in 2009, yet five years later […]

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In honor of autumn’s dwindling days, I called upon the innovative work of renowned sculptor and environmentalist, Andy Goldsworthy to celebrate the brilliance of fall. He seizes the fleeting opportunity for a momentary connection with nature, using leaves, sticks, rocks, bark, icicles and much more to create sculptures of exquisite form and intense color. I […]

Do you like this label as much as I do? As I was enjoying a glass of wine last night, this simple bird’s fluid figure on the label reminded me of my own style of contour sketching. To me, the little weightless bird is a bit of a paradox to the wine’s taste, a full-bodied, […]

No matter where I find myself, I cannot escape my Kentucky roots. In visiting Cincinnati’s 21c museum, it was evident that new media artist, Valerie Sullivan Fuchs, cannot either. This artist digitally manipulates images captured in Kentucky, desiring to eternalize the ephemeral landscape. Though asymmetrical designs are definitive of my own pattern work, this piece […]

Maybe today’s popular diamond pattern found its roots in Navajo weavings. The razor-edged, intersecting diamonds descend a crimson path in this Native American serape (circa 1850). Found at the de Young Museum in San Francisco, the striking colors contrasted sharply with the dim gallery space and drew me right in. I learned that the Navajo […]

Walking along Page Street in San Francisco’s Haight-Ashbury neighborhood this summer, I spied this beautiful large-scale, mosaic tile mural. Along with five other mosaics, its impact and message are hard to miss. It was created by artist, Sharon Virtue along with a group of younger helping hands for the Boys & Girls Club of San […]

The pureness of color reflected in this sculptural watertower came alive to me! It will stand as a beacon of inspiration as I often design and incorporate layers of translucent color into my pattern designs. Artist Tom Fruin constructed it from found plexiglass and is best viewed from the Brooklyn Bridge Park. The luminous watertower […]

This image influenced me to design a pattern with loops and shadows that has become one of the central designs in my Askew Collection. I photographed Ruth Asawa’s woven wire sculptures at the de Young museum in San Francisco. The shadows shift on the walls as the sculptures float and twist…creating endless organic patterns. It […]

This luminous kaleidoscope of converging shape and color captures my imagination like no other large installation can. Its continually shifting pieces burst into my field of vision as I attempt to capture its abstract beauty forever. Dale Chihuly masters the bending and blending of glass, mystifying each of us, as our eyes dance from shape […]

While traveling I’m always on the lookout for a cool pattern, but I was still surprised when I came upon this intriguing eyeball tree. Is it a palm? An elephant ear tree? This mid-westerner still isn’t sure. But its contrasty, geo-circular pattern is nature’s way of inspiring me to get out my sketchpad once again!

Today’s inspiration shows off some of Mother Nature’s best pattern design. A cool morning hike alongside a massive cliff formation in Red River Gorge revealed Her layered spiral carvings of natural stone within Kentucky’s Daniel Boone National Forest. Perhaps Mother Nature’s thumbprint will provide inspired direction for a future pattern design that I could only […]

I just had to touch it. My hands would not stay in my pockets while my eyes feasted on a smorgasbord of color, texture and pattern. I found this vintage Moroccan rug casually folded on a shelf in an oh-so-very-vintage and hip Nashville shop…that is actually well-loved for their own brand of blue jeans. imogene […]

As a textile designer, I thought I’d take a break from my usual pattern designs and try my hand at making a hand-dyed pillow. Originally from Kentucky, my family and I love the Derby. Over the winter we commissioned a painting by artist Carol Spielman. Its turquoise & aqua colors are incredibly vibrant and inspired […]

The rich color saturation of this small poppy photo caught my eye and inspired sketch after sketch. The interpretations led to a creative & contemporary new pattern collection…with an organic, loose style infused with richly layered color. When I first saw this photo, the color was like a knock out punch to my brain. I […]