About the Artist

From childhood, Marka has loved color, music, creative freedom, art, and a certain amount of solitude. There were many art and music courses along the way – a professional music career became a consideration in college, where music and philosophy were her majors at Pacific Christian College and what was then Long Beach State College. Then life happened and, after many twists and turns, she was managing software control with Hughes Aircraft in Tucson, Arizona.

“Mr. Australia” then came into her life and it became a peripatetic international voyage. A happy couple years in Pasadena, California, began it all. At Pasadena City College, she pursued a double degree once more – this time geography and printmaking. There seems to be a definite dichotomy here, causing her dissatisfaction with a single path.It was a great time and was followed by time living in Java, Australia and several years in Saudi Arabia. An intense fascination with the new cultures and people was followed by horror of women’s status as property, with the attitudes of superiority assumed by Saudis in general. The separation from her family, particularly her two gifted, creative sons and their West Coast lives was hard, too.. Even the rock-like support of her loving husband wasn’t enough to overcome the sense of isolation and gender inequality of Saudi, where she spent time rediscovering painting (watercolor) and teaching computer classes (illegally) to women. A wonderful thing happened there, though – she saw her first art quilt and a community of adventurous quilting enthusiasts. She suddenly saw a clear direction and took that path, which has evolved from love of fabric into quilting, incorporated with surface design and more. Her goal is to express, through textile, the hidden nature of things – the essence. She tries always to say something about herself and women in general, through color, texture and design.

Presently, she lives in Henderson, Nevada, where she is part of a great group of artists. There are doll makers, creators of wearable art, jewelry makers, textile painters and dyers, photographers, mixed media and quilt artists in this group. She is also part of a small critique group which meets every other week and this makes for a wonderful, stimulating environment, as she tries to be true to her voice through the work, no matter where in the world she finds herself. Always, her goal is to move farther into the art.