PSBA Member SPOTLIGHT

I met John the summer before our junior year of college. We met and married three months later. It was not something people in my sphere were doing. The norm was to wait until after graduation, when someone had a job before marrying. How I ended up in Tacoma is because of John. After finishing our undergraduate degrees, we moved to the University of Montana, where he got his MFA. Then we went to southern Indiana for his first teaching job. We wanted to move back to the West Coast when this job teaching ceramics at the University of Puget Sound came up. It was 1976, and we’ve been here ever since.

Q: Tell us about your history as an artist. 

I began making art when I was pretty young, actually. Even as a child, I loved drawing—we didn’t have much access to tools and materials, but I loved to draw. My mom taught all the girls how to sew, and I loved sewing clothes. If we sewed our own clothes, my mother would buy the fabric. After John and I got married, I bought a loom and did weaving for many years. My undergraduate major was in Fine Arts with an emphasis on printmaking, and I loved it. Printmaking requires a lot of space, a press, and it’s messy, so I didn’t do it for a long time after college. But I had that loom for years, and I would take my work to fairs. 

When I think about why I liked these different art forms, it's because they are process-based art as opposed to painting, for example. This kind of work requires completing multiple steps before you get to the finished product. It turned out this is not dissimilar to the administrative work I took up later. 

When I went to college, there were so few choices for women— it was mostly nursing or teaching—so I planned to be a teacher. I got my credential, but all along I was taking art classes. I found out quickly I didn’t really enjoy the classroom; I liked working with kids one-on-one. When we lived in Montana, I was a Title 1 teacher who worked with individual children who had reading difficulties. By the time we moved to Tacoma, I began an intense period of childrearing with our two children.

When the kids got older, I needed to decide what to do next. I wanted to combine my love of the arts with my naturally strong administrative skills. I started with the Pantages Center—I learned it was who you know and being in the right place at the right time. I moved on to the City of Tacoma Arts Commission and worked there for about ten years (now we’re in the 90s). During this time, I was still trying to find time to do my own artwork. I did a lot of photography during this period.

I eventually worked as a freelance contractor in the arts community. For example, I was part of the community group that started the Tacoma School of the Arts, and I wrote the grant to the Gates Foundation that got the school off the ground. After that, I was program manager for Arts Impact, teaching teachers how to use arts in the classroom. Both SOTA and Arts Impact are still going strong.   By 2010, I gradually retired from this administrative career and was able to spend as much time as I wanted on my artwork.

How do I identify as an artist? When I introduce myself, I say I’m a printmaker and a book artist, but I must admit I mostly do book arts now; however, I’ll include prints in the book. I like learning new techniques like botanical printing, cyanotypes, and new book structures.

Q: Since you’ve done so many different kinds of art, what influences you, or is there a theme in your work?

I like being able to tell a story. When I was doing prints, you could just make something that you thought was beautiful; it didn’t necessarily have to mean something. In the beginning, I did a couple of books where I collaborated with my daughter, who is a writer. Those were really fun to do, and we worked together to develop the story. 

Q:  How did you discover book arts and PSBA?

I had a neighbor who was a good friend of Debbie Greenwood’s. They offered a one-weekend workshop in some of the things that Debbie still does, like her gel printing, and we also made some basic book structures. I knew Debbie from the City’s Arts Commission (she was president at one time). That was my introduction to book arts.

I wasn’t involved with the group that helped form PSBA, but I knew about it. I knew about the exhibit, and I think I’ve been in every single exhibit since the very beginning. For the first exhibit, I submitted a very, very simple accordion fold book that I made out of a watercolor painting. There used to be play dates and PSBA workshops at Rochelle Monner’s home; she had a great studio there.

It’s funny that with my administrative background I didn’t join the board earlier. But after years and years of being part of strategic planning and goal setting, I just couldn’t do it.  Gradually, the memory of those administrative years faded, and I felt renewed and able to join the board. I was the Program Chair when COVID hit. That was March of 2020, and everything was up in the air. We had multiple in-person workshops scheduled and had to make a quick transition. There was a lot of scrambling, and many people pitched in as we made the transition to Zoom. Laurie Moorhead quickly figured out how to do it and then taught a core group of Zoom facilitators.

Fortune/Misfortune Parallel Lives of Abby Williams Hill and Mary Beaber Renner (Dorothy’s great grandmother)

Q:  Any thoughts on PSBA and preparing for the future?

I think my main thought came out of the picnic last month. Looking around, we are an older group. I hope we can attract younger people to keep the spirit alive. PSBA seems really healthy now, but I’m thinking about how to carry the passion for the book arts forward.

Personally, I’d like to see more in-person activities. Zoom gives us a chance to meet and learn things that ordinarily we wouldn’t have had access to, but in-person meetings or working together on a project really strengthen the bonds. Our Pierce County group has grown. Early on there would be five or six people; now there are usually twelve.  It’s been fun to watch PSBA grow and change.

When I first joined the group, there was a real stress on the book arts as an art form and not just craft. I think that’s still there, but maybe the point isn’t as dominant. I hope we stay at a higher caliber in what we teach and what we expect. That thought applies across the organization with all our offerings. That was one of the things that attracted me to PSBA. We were aspiring to a high level of art. It could change if we don’t keep that value in our awareness.

In my pre-book arts days, I knew other artists in town, but we rarely did anything together. Many of the PSBA members I consider good friends; I could easily call one or more to run an idea by, get help with a technical problem, or corral a group to visit a museum. The PSBA community is a gift, and I’m so grateful for it in my life.

Q: Do you have a mentor? 

John is the first person I go to for feedback. What do you think of this? I don’t usually think of him as a mentor because we’ve done this for so long. This goes both ways. He’ll ask me what I think about something he’s working on.

Q: What’s your next project?

I’m working on the wabi sabi project. The book is a piece of white wool that I’ve dyed with botanicals. It turned out to be a lovely fabric with muted leaves. I’m making it into a scroll, and I’m coming up with new ideas as I’m working on it. I love participating in the book exchange. 

In June I went to FOBA and came home with some wonderful books and ideas.

FOBA 2026 projects: Paper Marbling, Link-stitch Ethiopian Board Attachment, Japanese Binding, and a Trio of No Glue Structures

But I have to admit I’ve been working more on the garden this summer. This morning I was canning chutney from our plums from the plum tree. John and I were doing this together.  I’ve been stalled because it’s summer and time to be outside. 

Q: Do you collect anything besides books? 

John and I both love the crafts from other countries. We have quite a collection of small animals and objects from other places. These are things that any tourist can buy. I love to see what other people are doing—how they are expressing themselves.  

Q: Last question—say something about your studio.

It’s a really special place. John and I both use it. There’s something about the light. Something I found to be important, and I didn’t get it until later in my life, is to have the studio separate from the house. Before we moved here, I had always done my work in the house; for example, the loom was in the dining room, or I had my studio in a daylight basement in the last house. There’s something about going to a different space that helps shift the mindset. Now I’m in the studio. 

P.S. Looks like Book Arts may run in the family. Dorothy and her daughter, Jefna Cohen, have collaborated on several books. This is an example from 2017.