Piper researches the relationship of pattern and ornament in textiles and architecture. For her, cloth has offered limitless possibility to reference historic objects, to define space, and to consider its beauty, in and of itself, and its structure and ornament. My methodology and the intimacy of handwork I look to exemplify offers a humanness and the presence of a person.  I find this important especially now when we are constantly negotiating the ways we communicate, and our fragmented time.

I have exhibited my work nationally and internationally, and I’ve written and received several grants and awards to travel and research. I’ve placed travel at the forefront of my practice to further understand my connections, really our connections, to cloth and culture; what binds us together and crosses boundaries and borders through the creative human spirit and the making of cloth.

I have worked and taught in the fiber field since the 1980’s. It is engrained, a part of my thinking and being. What I want to share with the students and alumni I have been so fortunate to work with is the wonder of art, the necessity of it in our lives, how art can move, impassion, and empower. And, how this medium called Fiber has the incredible ability to do just that.