Fueled by an inner drive to work with her hands, she began woodworking over 20 years ago, having been trained previously as a fine artist. Since then, she has worked on everything from brightly colored shelving and ceiling panels for the Children's Museum in Manhattan to benches for Dia Foundation founder Heiner Friedrich's mystical Sufi temple in SoHo, to warm yet sleekly designed kitchen cabinetry executed in local spalted maple for a private home in West Park.

Unlike many of the men in the trade, Alt is not obsessed with fulfilling a particular artistic vision of her own. Rather, working from plans drawn up by an architect or interior designer, she applies her extensive skills in making the finished piece perfect for its intended context.

"People have such different tastes," she avers. "Some like things minimal, some are into a lot of frou-frou, so I accommodate what's going on in the particular job." Left to her own devices, Alt creates designs that are basically straightforward, but with an odd twist or a bit of whimsy here or there to give it some complexity - clearly an extension of the maker herself. An energetic single mom, Alt has crafted a life that includes dedication to her trade, exploration of the world at large through her painting and sculpture, and even production of a local cable-access show, featuring videos she's shot of various local artists at work.

The Arts & Crafts Movement, begun in 19th-century Britain, developed as an attempt to reverse the growing dehumanization of labor in society. In Alt's well-grounded practice, there is more than a little echo of William Morris's Socialist convictions about the importance of balancing work and life. While the specific forms of her pieces can vary widely, each invariably finds its soul in the compelling energy of the hands that made it.