After leaving engineering in 1986 (after a B.S. and a M.S.)  I found solace in pottery.  I was not happy making reports.  I need to make things that people can see and touch. To me, pottery is the hands-on use of chemistry and geology for the purpose of art.  And art is the language of expression. For better or worse, I have been in love with clay and glaze ever since.

After working for 25 years, doing custom work, shops, galleries and art shows, I took some time off.  After a “sabbatical”, I missed it so much that I returned to clay.  Now with an electric kiln instead of the massive gas kiln, I am learning to love oxidation glazes.  I am still in love with form, primarily, but the glaze needs to support and augment the form.  I do love the variation of colors available and the soft, satin, micro-crystalline glazes. 

When I am working with clay (throwing, trimming, glazing), I lose all sense of time.  I go “into the zone”.  What I like to do best is to ask the clay, the half-formed piece, “what do you want to be?”  I feel that to let the clay express itself opens a channel to Spirit, of which we are all a part.  Does the clay express itself?  Does it express part of me?  Am I the expresser or the means of expression?  Does it matter?

What does matter to me is that the finished piece is a true and authentic expression of feeling and personality.  I hope that each of my clay works has good personality.  I hope it is a personality that you can relate to.