ABOUT
grew up in Eugene, Oregon, a place where the natural world was impossible to ignore. I loved making things from a very early age and spent hours on intensive projects, completely unaware I would grow up to do it professionally. My formal path began at community hubs like Maude Kerns Art Center and the University of Oregon Craft Center. In these shared spaces, watching hobbyists and seasoned makers side-by-side, I experienced the deep satisfaction of learning how things are built. That democratic environment instilled in me a lifelong belief that craft and creativity belong to everyone.
This fascination with physical making eventually led me to Portland, where I earned my BFA from Oregon College of Art and Craft in 1999. My time at OCAC was foundational, shaping my identity as a craft-influenced sculptor. It gave me the specific technical skill set to work confidently with reclaimed and found materials, turning what others saw as waste into deliberate objects.
It matters deeply to me that my work can be experienced by everyone—regardless of their background or familiarity with the art world. This commitment to connection is why I gravitate toward stories in nature. Today, I continue to work from my studio in Portland, driven by that same desire to look closely at the world and invite others into a shared appreciation of our landscape through the language of craft.
When I am not in the studio, I am usually walking my neighborhood, cooking, tackling home and garden projects, watching Taskmaster, or solving the NYT Spelling Bee.
photo 2025 by Liz Crandall during an art residency at Pine Meadow Ranch.
ABOUT MY WORK
I am a triple threat artist-- conceptual, production, and public art. Here's how I roll:
STUDIO PRACTICE
My studio practice explores the ways that humans attempt to control nature, and in turn, nature finds a way to adapt or reassert itself--such as the grass that grows in the cracks of a sidewalk or mildew that forms on an uninsulated wall behind a couch. I express these struggles through craft-influenced sculpture and installations. My anthropomorphized organics live somewhere between humor and curiosity. A physical object is often the foundation of this work.
PUBLIC ART
As much as I love to do what I want, I equally adore working within a set of constraints. This is how I live in the world of public art, where function and pre-existing architecture give me hard and fast parameters to work within. I have grown my years of experience with installation art into an exploration of durable materials that don’t make aesthetic compromises and are scaled to their permanent environments. Thank you, hands-on craft training.
BUNNY WITH A
TOOLBELT
Another way I love to work with constraints is to design my own product line under the business name (and separate web entity) Bunny with a Toolbelt. My lifelong love of handmade wood animals come to life as wedding cake toppers, book characters, and playing cards.