Ila graduated from North Dakota State
University and taught home economics in St. Paul and Spring Lake Park,
Minnesota. She attended the University of Minnesota College of
Related Arts where she was introduced to fabric arts: weaving, quilting,
macrame, and batik. (Note: batik is a wax resist dye process
which originated in Indonesia, generally used for designing fabric. But
batik can also be used to create art works. It is a kind of reverse
process, since one does not paint in the color, but rather, wax the part
that you want to retain the color through the next dye.)
It was batik that caught her interest and
continued to intrigue her for more than thirty years. Over the years,
Ila has invited many groups, both children and adults, to experience the
process of batik in Fridley, in Colorado Springs, and now at Battle
Lake. Her other interests are gardening, travel, reading, and
square dancing. She worked for Current, Inc. for fifteen years in
Colorado Springs.
Ila joined the Art of the Lakes
organization when she and Rich retired to Battle Lake ten years ago.
Over these years she has attended many AOTL sponsored workshops,
coordinated several batik workshops, and has served on the board of
directors for Art of the Lakes. In 1998 she was the recipient of the
Lake Region Arts Council award to an individual artist, because of her
support work and grant writing for Art of the Lakes and leadership of
the Minnesota Rural Arts Initiative in the Battle Lake School District.
The showing of her batik art work at the
Detroit Lakes Public Library for the month of October was a highlight
last year. This May a large batik of a fall branch of aspen called
“Colorado Gold” won the blue ribbon (first place) in the fine arts
division at Dorsey Whitney law offices in Denver. The show was
sponsored by the Colorado Business Committee for the Arts.
