“A baked clay vessel. Don’t put it in the glass display case full of rare objects. It would show up badly. Its beauty is allied with the liquid it contains and the thirst it quenches.”
Statement
My focus is to express sentiments of beauty and joy through tactile, handmade pots.
Whether forming a vase that decorates a room or producing dinnerware that celebrates a meal, my work is made to honor and enhance the rhythms of home life. Driven to create for special occasions, I visualize the holiday table brimming with friends, food, flowers, and candlelight. While I enjoy the vibrant energy encircling a festive gathering, I find the contemplative moments sipping a morning cup of coffee equally as invigorating. My work is intended to live in these instances of physical and psychological nourishment.
As a lover of textiles and sewing, I use two dimensional templates to build three dimensional forms out of slabs. I utilize details such as folds, seams, darts, pleats, tufts and ruffles to relate to the craft of a seamstress. It is important that these methods of construction are evident in each finished piece as a nod to process and the pots “life” with the maker.
Decorative imagery is gathered from specific textile sources created during times of optimism and progress: post WWII textiles, Arts and Crafts Era designs and Edo period kimono fabrics. This imagery is then transferred to my forms by way of handmade stamps and/or carved imagery. Repetition of stamped textures is a way for me to refer back to my love of sewing and to communicate a sense of wonder and merriment. The texture in my work is also a means to offer a tactile experience for the user. You cannot just see the decoration, you can FEEL it!
Determined to keep “handmade” an essential part of the contemporary home, my ongoing focus is to reinforce personal sentiments of beauty, joy, nourishment and celebration. Whether it’s a festive meal shared by many or a cup of tea indulged by one, I remain motivated by moments when pottery is in use. By making thoughtful, useful, handcrafted pottery for the domestic landscape, I am inspired to enhance the home, engage the hand, and enliven the spirit.
