After a career in the corporate world, Pendleton’s curiosity led her to explore her creative side. Without knowing what she was getting into, she took a class in kiln-fired glass over 18 years ago and fell in love with the medium. She found the transformation of glass by heat exciting. The centuries-old techniques were fascinating. As a longtime resident of the Southwest, Pendleton has always appreciated the traditions and color palette of native people, which highly influenced her “Story Basket” series. “So what is the story? I have always been interested in the mind’s ability to translate random patterns and colors into something meaningful. If you have ever watched the sky on a summer day, you may have imagined shapes and images in the clouds. The Story Baskets are like that for me. My imagination creates images and stories from the patterns in the baskets. I soon realized that others do not see the same images in the patterns that I see. We all bring our own stories. It is always fascinating to learn what stories other viewers bring to the pieces. It begs the questions “What do you see? What is going on here?””