| Throughout my life I have been fascinated by the design process. My experiences as a child making tree forts, dress-up costumes and mud pies, in many ways influences how I pursue ceramics today. I use clay like a seamstress uses fabric, cutting patterns with curves and darts to change the shape and form. I envision my pots as pieces of architecture, always striving to create stable structures out of the pliable material all the while finding a balance in function and form. Each time as the clay is transformed from lifeless slabs to volumetric forms there is an excitement, a breath, an inhalation that I find nowhere else. I began my exploration of ceramics in high school in small town St. Clair, Michigan in an independent study program. Through this program I discovered a love of clay that led me to pursue the arts at Eastern Michigan University. Looking back at my youth I see the influences of creative people all around me. My father, a finish carpenter, is a precision craftsman. My grandmother created slip cast porcelain wares and dolls. My Mother was always pursuing one craft project after the other. It was inevitable that I would become a maker of some kind. |