I grew up in a small town in Illinois where children spent most days outdoors because there was no air-conditioning. Our house backed on to the town cemetery, across an alley lined with bins in which groundskeepers dumped the artificial flowers and other mementos left on the graves. These were my first, magical art supply.

In the high school I attended, a visionary biology teacher led an initiative to restore a parcel of state park land to native prairie. I worked on this project throughout my time there–looking in places that had never been plowed–like railways and churchyards–to find native plants, and collecting the seeds and growing them. I learned from him how to look closely at the natural world, seeing both what belongs and what doesn’t. [Robert Horlock’s prairie thrives today and is now named in his honor.]

At Duke University where I’d planned to study Biology, a work/study job in the costume shop led to a concentration in design and construction. After graduation I moved to New York. In 1988, I founded Penny Babel Couturier.

For 33 years, my staff and I created bespoke garments for our clients and featured in beauty and fashion spreads (Brides, The New York Times, New York Magazine, Town & Country and New York Magazine).

I continue to study at some of New York’s most renown institutions, including the China Institute and the Art Students League. A series of workshops in Fundamentals with Ephraim Rubenstein and classes in Mixed Media and Collage with Mariano del Rosario and Augustine Boyce Cummings led to my current art-making path.