Gail Duclose Lapierre

Everything's Sheepshape. Designed and hooked by Gail Duclose Lapierre, Shelburne, Vermonth, 2006.

Gail Duclose Lapierre is a hooked-rug artist, scientist, and farmer whose life and work are tied to the agricultural landscape of her native Vermont. She and her husband, Claude, raised their family in a centuries-old house and ran a dairy farm on land that has been in Claude's family for three generations. Gail works as an outreach specialist for the Vermont AgrAbility Project at the University of Vermont Extension, helping to support farm families affected by a disability to be productive and successful in agriculture.

Gail has a BS in animal sciences with a concentration in animal physiology from the University of Vermont. The thoughtful precision demanded for her academic work is applied to the design and execution of her hooked rugs. Notable are Gail's patterns, which marry geometry with an agricultural sensibility, as demonstrated in the tessellated designs titled Everything's Sheepshape and Tessellated Frogs.

This article is from the September/October 2010 issue. For more information on our issues, check out our issues page.