Statement

I’m moved by ancient pottery, sculpture and art from cultures worldwide that is often connected to agriculture, cooking or ceremony. It conveys something essential and timeless about the human experience and reminds me what is important in life.

So much inspires and influences my forms and decoration, and my approach to making, it’s difficult to narrow, but obvious are plants—micro to macro—and gardens. More subtle inspiration comes from the dance and choreography of Soledad Barrio and Ohad Naharin. I admire that they each achieve timeless palpable presence blending precise choreography with accents of improvisation while pushing up against limits and boundaries of the shapes and movements human bodies can make to express raw human experience and emotion.

In making my pots, more is usually better—vibrant color, multiple layers, lots of texture, decoration, volume. And the animated, dancing energy that improbable proportions and imbalance create excites me.

Drawn to clay’s immediacy and endless technical and esthetic challenges, I pinch, coil and sculpt red stoneware clay vessels that straddle the categories of sculpture and utility. I think of them as spiritual power objects—holding breath—sharing, celebrating and consecrating life.