Hares

Consisting of seven fancifully coiffed rabbits, the “Hares” series represents resistance to stereotype and celebrates individual expression even within the confines of conformity. Each in the series is sculpted from clay and fired to its final temperature with a unique underglaze pattern before being smoked together in smoldering sawdust. The smoke adds to each rabbit’s unpredictable, individual markings. 

Dermistidae

The Dermestidae series explores the contradiction of the magnificent, architectural beauty of skulls found in nature with the disgust most of us inherently feel about the process of decay that breaks down life into object. The skull is carved from clay and decorated with bone cleaning beetles spotlighted graphically to make them palatable, thus accessible.

An Exploration of Slugs

My first slug sculpture grew out of a story that wasn’t even about slugs, but rather someone smuggling snails under her shirt. It gave me a reason to sculpt a female figure that wasn’t just about gazing at the female body. Slugs replaced snails because I found them more visually sleek and appealing. And from there, my interest in slugs grew, and ideas abounded for how to use them in sculpture. Almost immediately, I discovered that people react to slugs very viscerally, and usually not nicely. I found it curious. What about this little creature elicited such disgust? Currently, I’m working on a series to explore these questions and how they fit into our relationship to and understanding of nature.

From Sculpture to Function

Because I was making bottles and vases when I sculpted this whimsical grouping of abstract sculptures, it is not surprising that I could see those functions in them. Recently, I started making bottles from one of the forms (more to come!), which meant I had to create a lid for it. And this led to a set of cups that mimicked the form of the bottle. I love the little set of bottle and cups so much that I’ve explored many surfaces with them. Here are a couple of my favorites.

Embracing a Glossy Glaze - Black and White

How often have I felt that “satin” is the holy grail of glaze surfaces. Oh so much. But it turns out that the most enduringly reliable glaze that I have ever made is a glossy one. I always loved it on the inside of functional ware, and truth be told, in every day functional use. But as a look, I had not really given it a fair shake until I started using it to do black and white.

Tiny Boxes

Hundred Bottles

Making 100 “things” is one of those projects I revisit from time to time that helps me explore form, maybe experiment with glazes or surface. This gallery is an example of what came out of one of those iterative rounds - in this case 100 bottles.

In Another Life I Was a Photographer

I’ve actually always been a photographer and still am really. It started when my mom let me carry around her Canon SLR as a kid shooting whatever struck my fancy, then entered some of those photos in a local competition. It gave me the recognition that photography was in the category of “things I can do,” which I return to often and have occasionally taken very seriously. Below is a small sampling of one of those most recent periods of taking photography seriously.