I use color boldly, with a sure hand, creating strong visual statements in fiber. It is my relationship with color, the use of intensely dyed primaries within large color fields, which distinguishes my work.

The weaving techniques I use are very basic and as old as time itself. From the first moment I sat behind a loom there was not a question in my mind that I was a weaver. Many formative years of art school and teaching had prepared me to begin telling stories through textiles. It is here that I have spent two and a half decades in pursuit of visual surprise on the flat woven surface.

To be a weaver is an almost surreal occupation placed against the backdrop of linear time and the pace, demands and deadlines of contemporary life.

Mary Zicafoose maintains a fiber studio in Omaha, Nebraska, where she lives with her husband, Kirby, and teenage daughter, Kale. Largely a self-taught weaver, she credits her courage at the dye-pot to the influence of the painter Mark Rothko and her ethno-contemporary voice to every textile she has touched. She currently sits on the board of the Robert Hillestad Textile Gallery and the Steering Committee for the 2007 Midwest Weavers Conference. Her tapestries and rugs span the globe, from corporate offices to the homes of United States Ambassadors on four continents, with work recently lent to the U.S. Embassies in Jakarta, Indonesia and Brunei, Bandar Seri Begawan. She exhibits, speaks, and teaches worldwide.