I have always said that my work was about my emotional “weather,” between turbulent and calm times.  Between hope and despair.  Really about broken places and how I deal with them. 

Now I feel the ocean is a better metaphor.  On its surface it can be stormy, choppy, undulating, or placid, but underneath it is mostly tranquil.  Whereas before the work was about the turbulent surface currently it is about the quiet calm of the ocean floor.  Expressing visually our shared human emotional experiences is what I have always strived to communicate.

 

Biography 

Saaraliisa has been working in the field of fiber for over 45 years.  As her husband was in the Foreign Service, they lived in Costa Rica, Japan, Peru and South Africa.  While in Kyoto for five years, she fell in love with washi (handmade paper) and studied with a master papermaker.  Since that time, her art work uses Japanese handmade paper as well as her own. She has shown nationally and internationally: these include Zimbabwe, Chile, Venezuela, Norway, Lithuania, Slovenia, Hungary, Australia, Peru, Costa Rica, South Africa, Japan, Korea, the United States and Canada.