Functional Gallery

Pit Fired Gallery

There has always been a strong force within me, pulling me toward the earth. My connection with the clay medium is the result of this pull. 
In my formative years I spent many hours playing next to streams, digging clay and making small pots and sculptures. Now I spend countless 
hours in the studio with the same passion; my skills are just a little more refined. My creation process always starts with a spark of inspiration. 
This prompt comes to me from many places including my life experience, relationships with friends and family and the time I spend outdoors.

While working on my functional line, I look to dinner parties, holidays and meals where people celebrate life with food. I imagine what kind of 
forms compliment the food I enjoy eating with loved ones and then I create it. This is why my forms are always changing and growing -- it seems 
there are always new foods to discover and interesting people to share a meal with.

Friends, who are mothers, have been the muses for the Vessels of Life series. Watching childhood friends grow into womanhood, blossom as 
vessels of life, and bring beautiful children into this world, I could not help but be stirred. The series is more then a celebration of feminine life 
giving potential, it is also a meditation on what I am bringing into this world as a woman and as an artist. I chose to create these sculptures using 
a variety of clay bodies and firing techniques to reflect the uniqueness of all women.

My pit-fired works are based on traditional ceramic forms, which I alter slightly. I choose to work with long-established forms in this series 
because it compliments the pit firing process, which is the first known firing technique. I rebury the bisque pieces in the ground and leave the 
exterior results in the hands of chance. The loose atmospheric surface is like a dream that fades in and out, a dream you hope to catch a glimpse 
of and remember.

The fiber sculpture series was started in the summer of 2006. It is a very new series, which is inspired by the time I spend gardening each year. 
The forms are taken from shapes I observe in seeds and seedlings.  The knitted and crocheted pieces are about the spiraling metamorphosis that I see in 
spring and in life.

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