Everything is a potential craft material… that’s what I discovered when “knitting” with grass at age four growing up in a creative family in communist Czechoslovakia (modern-day Czech Republic). Making art became my escape during gloomy political times. While times were scarce, nobody could take away my pencils, sketchbooks or crochet hooks. I owe my crochet skills to my babicka (“grandma” in Czech) who patiently taught me single and double crochet. My love for anything creative deepened when I started taking art classes at Lidová Škola Umění under the tutelage of an accomplished fiber artist. After much exploration of different media, my search has narrowed on fiber arts. And that’s where the love affair with fiber first began and later on developed into crochet/knitted items. While I possess no formal art training, in my work I bring together all the different parts of me, including my day job as a child psychologist. My work with children inspires me to create with a certain degree of whimsy, a smidge of mischief, and childlike play. I like to look at ordinary objects like an apple, I think of ways that I can crochet it with a fun but sophisticated twist. I have been deeply influenced by the artists represented at the American Visionary Art Museum as I firmly believe that being an artist is not an outcome one achieves nor an education one pursues but a state of observing with fresh eyes and making something new and meaningful.