Frances is an artist, designer and educator. She was born in Auckland, in 1954 and completed her schooling in New Zealand. From 1974 to 1997 she lived, worked and studied in Australia and in Italy.

She holds a BA in Visual Arts, majoring in Sculpture, from the Tasmanian School of Art, University of Tasmania, and an MFA from the College of Fine Arts, University of NSW.

Although initially trained in woodcarving, Frances's work as a sculptor and theatre designer, specializing in puppetry and animated objects, has used fabric construction and decoration extensively.

She has exhibited widely including solo shows at Watter's Gallery, The Performance Space Gallery and First Draft West in Sydney and in group shows including Artspace, Sydney, The Melbourne Sculpture Triennial and the Institute of Contemporary Art, Brisbane. Her work as a designer and producer includes 'Selling Ourselves for Dinner' with the All Out Ensemble, Adelaide Festival 1982; 'Forbidden Fruit' with, Aurore Puppet Theatre, Sydney Opera House and International Puppet Festival, Adelaide 1983; and the design and production of parade costumes, performing units and animated floats for World Expo 88, Brisbane.

As an art educator Frances has taught at the University of Tasmania, and for many years in the Department of Sculpture, Performance and Installation at the Sydney College of the Arts, University of Sydney. In 1997 she returned to NZ to lead the MA (Art and Design) degree at the Auckland University of Technology. She is currently an Associate Professor working in Art and Design Post Graduate Studies.

From both theatre and education she has developed extensive production and management experience, and while continuing to occasionally exhibit in galleries has, since 1990, been more interested in exploring broader social contexts for art and design practice. This work has involved working with project groups in project management, creative and research components and has included 'The Art Injection' artists in hospitals projects at the Children's Hospital, Camperdown, Sydney (1992 - 95) and the 'Artful Park', Enviromental Sculpture exhibitions at Centennial Park Sydney (1995-96).

Frances was a founding member of the Patterns of Identity: Textiles in Aotearoa project.