My Journey With Clay
I began working with clay when I was nine years old, guided by my mother who is a potter. Working with clay is therapeutic and soothing. I love the feeling of slip and glaze coating my hands, the satisfaction of creating a smooth surface or trimming a piece with a sharp tool.
Ceramics introduced me to the world of three-dimensional art. Something about the tactility of sculpture, and especially ceramics, speaks to me. I think about my pots in the context of both their use and their presentation, and I see all constructed work—regardless of its use—as sculpture.
I began this website to share my work with others, bringing my expressions of form and function first to my own table, and then to those of extended family and friends. As I have produced more work I have been able to branch out and experiment, playing with new techniques and production practices.
I have studied many different ceramic techniques over the years, beginning with classes and workshops in community studies and expanding my horizons from there. To date, I have studied under Japanese master potter Otani Shiro in Shagaraki (I am pictured in his home studio to the left) and worked as an apprentice to renowned sculptor and ceramic artist Peter Lane in Brooklyn, New York.
