I have been intrigued with baskets for many years. Thinking about what can be placed in the basket, what gives life to the inanimate object of the basket, informs the way that I look at my work. The basket is the container of things needed to maintain my life, utilitarian as well as beautiful. Memories, memento's of my own life process, are kept in the baskets that I make and also collect. As I look at each basket they bring back a place and time, a part of my progression as a person and as an artist. Putting ideas into the basket as I work on it has become as important as design and color to my aesthetic sense. Using color to express an idea or even just a mood is a means of expression that evolves like the slow processes that I use. While very time consuming, this allows time for contemplation and investigation into the basket form and ideas that I wish to reveal as the work grows into it's finished form. An ancient art form, used in many cultures for ceremonial purposes as well as for functional household uses, it remains my way of linking myself to the continuum of basket artists past and present.