Biography

Originally educated as a chemist, for many years Merridee viewed and experienced the world as a scientist. Science and art require similar attributes in her view: an appreciation for the wonder of the world, creativity, serious study, and the ability to observe closely. In addition, art requires a passion to take what one visually experiences and render it in some personal form. In Merridee’s case, this form is fiber arts, particularly botanical printing and painting on silk.

As a California orchard farmer’s daughter, hiker and lifelong gardener, Merridee has long loved being immersed in the outdoors. Her creations - paintings, botanical prints and felted pieces - are  inspired by the beauty just outside her door in the Sierra Nevada foothills of California.

Merridee has studied silk painting, rozome, batik, botanical printing and felt making from artists as far away as Japan, Indonesia, Israel and Germany. Merridee’s work has been shown in galleries in Northern California and Kauai, and is in collections on the West and East coasts as well as in Hawaii and Mexico. She was thrilled to have had her silk paintings displayed twice in shows sponsored by the Smithsonian Institution. Examples of her work can be seen in Susan Louise Moyer’s book, Silk Painting for Fine Art and Fashion. She is honored to to have been designated a Master Silk Painter by her peers in Silk Painters International.


Artist's Statement

I love fiber arts – the history, beauty, tactile quality, variety, and the common thread that links my hands to those of so many in the past. Currently, I am once again focusing on silk painting, this time combining it with my other interests of botanical printing and natural dyeing. Botanical printing allows me to walk outside to collect leaves, bark, roots, and  flowers, process them on my textiles and obtain lovely prints. I literally bring the outdoors inside.

I am pleased to be part of the Art Studios of St. Lukes in Auburn California.