Patricia Danco

Business Name: Pat's Paper Folk
Type of Work: paper clay, mixed media, wood, fiber, eco dyeing, embroidery

Contact Information

Email: pdanco52@gmail.com

Website: patspaperfolk.etsy.com

Biography

Patricia Mathews Danco
Artist’s Statement

I was born and raised in New Jersey. My husband and I raised our three children in an old stone farmhouse (built in 1715) in the country (yes, there is still country in Jersey!).

My art is about the touch for me, and has been since I was quite small. The memory of others imprinted in old cloth, the softness of the sheep that once wore the wool - speak to me when I work. I would say I was self taught, but that wouldn’t be fair to my mother, my grandmother, and all of the other artists who have shared their knowledge, skills, and passion.

I have been working with fiber since the age of five, when my mother taught me to knit and sew. It started immediately, that love. Later, when I was teaching myself new skills (while restoring that old stone farmhouse) my passion for history came about - fascination with creating a garment from a sheep’s coat, growing plants to create colors, learning to stitch the alphabet on a piece of linen in order to mark these much treasured pieces.

After being chosen a few times as one of “Early American Life” magazine’s top 200 traditional American Craftsmen, I spent years as an embroidery artist, recreating those teaching samplers, dyeing them to look old, and selling them at juried shows.

Now, however, freedom reigns! After moving to beautiful Pilot Mountain, I am allowing my passion to expand into creating whimsical clay figures, to incorporate my love of stitching and to experiment and play. The act of creating now means even more to me than the finished piece. I let each figure dictate what it wants to be, and each one brings a smile to my face. I hope they make you smile, too!

Pat Danco
Pilot Mountain, NC