Artist’s Statement

I started my first studio in 1973, the day I graduated from college. I worked for the next 18 years at realizing the dream of being an independent and successful studio potter. In 1991 I went to live in Ireland for a year, fighting burnout and trying to figure out what to do with the rest of my life.

In May of 1994, I opened my studio and gallery to the public. I had realized that my previous problems were with how I was running my life and business, not with the clay itself. The time had come to stop being an isolated artist and change into someone that could work with community, using that word in the largest sense.

For the past 3 years I have continued my efforts to expand the various groups and individuals who can come here to see and experience the real working studio of an accomplished and recognized craft artist. They vary from elder hostels, girl scouts, the learning disabled and physically handicapped, to tourists and museum groups. They all go away with an educational and aesthetic learning experience.

A chunk of the earth, plus the added aspect of alchemy, that change - from clay or "primordial ooze" - into something of substance and form, along with the fear and magic of fire, is what I think brought me back to clay and the studio after the extended time off from the making of objects with these hands and earth - and it is that spirit and beauty that I want to convey to others.