What people are saying about Tracy Davis:

"Hauntingly luminous...compelling...
a stunning example of her type."
-The New York Times Book Review

"Irreverent yet wholesome . . . brazenly funny."
-TV Guide

"Profoundly disturbing."
- Lutheran Digest

I began as a collector of antique oriental rugs and textiles. Before long, my obsession converged with my civic interests, and I decided to open a retail oriental rug store in downtown Northfield. Over the normal course of business we began to design and produce hand-knotted carpets, first for custom clients and then for other companies. One thing led to another, and the manufacturing end became the most interesting and the most demanding part of the business. At the end of 2006 I decided to close the retail store and concentrate on what we do best. My company is a RUGMARK-certified (no child labor) producer with workshops in India, Nepal, and Pakistan, employing from 30 to 100 people depending upon the time of year. It's gratifying to work in a creative field with people from all over the world, experimenting with design ideas and coming up with new twists on a very old industry. It's almost as much fun as describing our work as "a vertically-integrated specialty manufacturing company with expanding core competencies".

Over the past several years I've also spent time working in the textile conservation lab at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts. It's a treat to go behind the velvet ropes and get my hands on some of the MIA's fabulous ethnographic and textile art. The Midwest isn't exactly a hotbed of design or orientalia, so I feel like a fish out of water in both profession and avocation, but the Rockwellesque setting in which I'm able to live is worth the trade-off.

So here I am, still in the delightful town of Northfield, MN with my three teenage daughters. They are the joy of my life, although I don't know why since they constantly make fun of me.

Somewhere along the road I've also accumulated three cats, a couple of parakeets, a hamster, husband #2 (whom I like to introduce as "Lance, my current husband"), and three delightful stepchildren plus a stepdaughter-in-law:        

And the latest addition, thanks to Rico and Kari:

On the civic front, I have a weekly audio show/podcast and accompanying weblog, "Locally Grown", which is is aired on KRLX 88.1 FM radio, along with my own blog where I both pontificate and enlighten (depending on my mood, and on one's own interpretation).

I'm able to indulge my Machiavellian vision—er, I mean, my sincere commitment to public service—on the Planning Commission for the City of Northfield. They haven't thrown me out yet, although I'm sure there's an anti-gadfly petition circulating around somewhere—at least in someone's head. In the past I've also served as a hospice volunteer and on the Board of our local United Way; I served out a six-year sentence on the City's Economic Development Authority; and I'm pleased to have been a founding member of Northfield Citizens Online and the Northfield Enterprise Center.  Northfield is a great place to live, work, and be involved in the community, and I don't want to take this rare gem for granted.

. . .

In my free time, if I remember correctly, I like to hang out in coffee shops and bookstores, go fishing, work in my pathetically neglected garden, and amble around the Arb. Between kids, work, and civic obligations, whatever time I can carve out for reading is spent with miscellaneous esoteric non-fiction, biography, poetry, and the occasional self-help book.

My other interests include architecture and decorative arts (I'm partial to the Vienna Secessionists), as well as experimenting with essential plant oils for medicinal and cosmetic use. I enjoy hiking, biking, dancing, and cross-country skiing, and don't do enough of any of them. My politics tend to have a libertarian flavor but can be somewhat unpredictable. I love old movies and old jazz. I have an ongoing romance with coffee, but prefer the culture of tea. I experimented with communal living "back in the day".  I enjoy being with people, yet cherish my time alone. I dig technology and am very content to live in the 21st century. I think popular culture is sick, and I'm out to find or develop alternatives. I'm a contrarian by nature and gripe about nearly everything. Fortunately, I also have a sparkling sense of humor and refuse to take myself or anything else too seriously. It's my only truly redeeming quality.

Good times at Nashville's Wild Horse Saloon