My art is my life; my life is my art.
Sustainability and community are my goals.

I live with three cats in a small, passive solar, timber framed house that I designed myself and built with the help of colleagues, friends and neighbors.  The timbers for the house came from the land where I built my house.  An avid gardener of both flowers and vegetables, I aspire to being a localvore.  I am an English country dancer.  For twenty years I was a sword dancer on The Marlboro Morris and Sword Team. 
Along with my art, I continue my practice of healing.

I earned my B.F.A., with Honors, and my M.F.A. from Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, NY.   Prior to my discovery of the cyanotype process, I received a Fulbright-Hays Grant for study in Belgium and The Netherlands.  In 1998, I received a Fulbright Memorial Fellowship to Japan.  Over the past thirty years, I’ve participated in numerous juried and invitational, national and international shows winning awards and acquiring commissions.  My work has been exhibited in six Quilt National shows, and I was a juror for one Quilt National show. Seven times I’ve exhibited in “Tactile Architecture”, Washington, D.C.  Twice I’ve won the Ballentine Award for Best in Show during juried annual exhibits of The League of NH Craftsmen, and over three times I’ve won the Fiber Award in the same annual show of The League of NH Craftsmen.  My work is in private collections, museums as diverse as the Canadian Center for Architecture in Montreal, Canada and The Rocky Mountain Quilt Museum in Golden, CO., and corportate collections such as IBM, Georgia Power Corporation, Bank of Boston, and Hays Collection in Washington, D.C. I participated in The Full Deck Art Quilts at the Renwick Gallery, Washington, D.C. My quilts have been used to illustrate many art quilt books and process-oriented books and a quilt of mine is shown in the Wisconsin Public Television’s new DVD, “The Art of Quilting”.    My photographs have been included in various books on timber framed houses, most notably Building The Timber Frame House:  The Revival of a Forgotten Craft by Tedd Benson and James Gruber.   Along with being an artist, I have been a designer of timber framed houses, and an arts educator for all ages, mostly in the public schools system.
Please contact me for a more detailed resume
or with any questions or comments.

In 2005, my small town of just under 2000 residents was devastated by a “once-in-500+year-flood”.  My own home was not affected, but I know many people who lost everything.  In 2006, I curated a town-wide, inclusive photo show about the flood.  I also assisted with photos in the commemorative book: TOO MUCH WATER TOO MUCH RAIN:  The Story of the Alstead Flood.  That book is available from The Alstead Historical Society, P.O. Box 16 , Alstead, NH 03602 .  ($30 plus $5 postage.)  While the support for the town and the people who were affected has been amazing, they are still in need of three hundred million dollars.  A donation of any size would be greatly appreciated.  Checks can be made out to and sent to:

Alstead Flood Relief
P.O. Box 60
 Alstead, NH 03602

- Thank you -
Flood clean-up pile
Flood damaged house

Go to the ABOUT THE PROCESS page for information about the processes used in Tafi's work.
Contact Tafi below for more information about the quilts and availability.