Our lives are comprised of a series of patterns, interactions, and influences that combine in the most unpredictable ways as they come full circle.

As a theatre practitioner, much of who I have become started through the relationship with my high school drama teacher and dear friend, Tina Croghan.

Tina & I in Chicago after a night out. When I lived up there, she and Tim visited regularly.

Tina was diagnosed with Spastic Paraplegia several years ago, and began working with the Spastic Paraplegia Foundation (SPF) soon afterwards. Since joining, she has taken on hosting conferences in St. Louis and has devoted tremendous time and effort in support of SPF. This week, Tina and her husband, Tim, are in Seattle, WA for the SPF conference. 

Right now, all of the proceeds of items sold in my Etsy shop will be donated to SPF.  Here is a direct link to the shop: https://www.etsy.com/shop/ZenUrbanCoyote

Theatre has been a part of my life even before meeting Tina, but it was because of theatre that I began working with textiles. While directing a theatre production of The Seagull a few years ago that had a spare budget, I began piecing together tablecloths, curtains and other items for the play by hand. After the play closed, I turned them into quilts — including the purple one that has become part of the “ZenUrbanCoyote” identity. The process of repurposing and transforming something so simple– and that somehow carried so much meaning — was the start of a new investigation into what it means to create.

A year later, at the rehearsal for Tina’s retirement party, I found myself stitching on one of the Seagull quilts, contemplating the irony that we had done the musical Quilters together while I was in high school. Tina and Tim ran our drama club like a family, and those of us who were a part of it continue to think of one another that way to this day. 

For more information on Spastic Paraplegia and the extraordinary research that is taking place on this rare and debilitating disease, please visit: www.sp-foundation.org.