Artist statement…

I knew as a child that I would become an artist. My interest in creating was heavily influenced by my grandmother who was a painter and art collector. I attended art school at Alfred University in Alfred, New York where I earned a B.F.A. in ceramics and painting. After graduating, I worked as a production potter’s apprentice in my home state of Pennsylvania. Soon after my apprenticeship, I moved to Ann Arbor, Michigan where I was hired to manage the Ann Arbor Art Center’s ceramics studio. For four years, I was responsible for the overall management and maintenance of the studio and gained experience in teaching wheel throwing, hand-building, and glaze formulation courses. The pursuit of a graduate degree brought me south to Athens, Georgia where I earned a M.F.A. from the University of Georgia. I then worked for two years as an assistant at Haystack Mountain School of Crafts in Deer Isle, Maine. For the next several years, I earned a living as a studio potter and taught in various ceramic centers in the region. I am currently an Assistant Professor of Art at Gainesville State College in Gainesville, Georgia where I teach ceramics and foundation level art courses.

During my time as a graduate student, I concentrated primarily on creating large-scale figurative sculptures. My inclinations as a painter found their way into the surfaces of the sculptural work.

For the past few years the majority of my work has been functional pottery. Pots keep me connected to the material of clay, and help me to maintain a strong sense of form and volume in all of my work. My interests in sculptural forms and surfaces inform my pottery. The pieces are considered from foot to lip, in the round, and in profile. I balance function with whimsical form and subtle manipulations. The lines in the colorful glaze designs echo the movements of the clay to achieve a fusion between surface and object.