Joan Lasse was born in Monteagle, Tennessee in 1952 to parents who dedicated their lives to peace and human rights. She credits them for teaching her the basics of life, tolerance and non-violence.

"I don't know where I got my love for animals. But it has always been there," she says. Transforming that into art was logical, as both her parents were artists and craftspeople.

The circle of life was coming around when her parents moved the family to Oregon. There she took art classes at Lane Community College and began exploring coastal waters. In 1977 her mother handed her a rock and said, "it's soapstone, you carve it." From two small pieces came a jumping fish and a howling wolf. One hundred carvings later, some going overseas, she still has the same answer as to where she learned her craft. "I see things in the rock," she says as she cradles the same pocketknife she started with 31 years earlier.

In 1980, she migrated to the Methow Valley. Nestled by the mountains, it became home, which she shared with bears, deer, elk, moose, coyote, salmon, eagles, and just about every other woodland creature. Just as readily she sought whale sightings and other ocean life when the rhythm of the ocean tides called to her.

A class through the North Cascade Institute intrigued her. It was three days aboard the 65-foot research vessel, the Snow Goose, studying form line art. Under the guidance of Scott Jensen she learned the basic forms of coastal art. "I think it was Scott's enthusiasm and knowledge that got me immersed in the people and their art," she recalls. "We not only studied the designs but we went to the Royal British Columbia Museum and saw who these people are and the use of natural resources around them to create such a rich culture. I studied more on my own and went to the Makah Celebration to experience their songs and dance. Early in the morning I walked to Cape Flattery, thinking back thousands of years. Just as I reached the overlook I heard a whale spouting below me. I ran up on to the wood deck in time to watch this magnificent creature go by. That was when I knew I was on the right path as our two worlds came together. I know now why ideas flowed like spring run-off, how natural and spiritual worlds blended, why animals called to me to take this ancient form. I was part of the circle of all creation. Like the river it flowed at will. Follow life's journey."