“Notice what you notice” is the best Art advice I ever received.
We all notice different things. For me it is color and pattern. They are inseparable at the heart of all my Artwork.
In 1991, I attended a workshop taught by Jane Peiser, a famous North Carolina colored clay artist. I discovered I could stain porcelain to create virtually any color I wanted. That set my path in clay. I have spent all the years since then refining technique and developing my style.
The foundation of my ‘style’, is pattern. Not simply the patterns of North America, but the pattern sense of other cultures. The joyful exuberance of African, Indian, Latin and Islamic patterns influences my work in subtle but important ways. I contain my complex patterns within a strict shape.
I stain my porcelain for my basic color palette. Then I blend these colors to achieve a wider range of secondary colors. I use these colors to create my patterns using the Japanese technique of Nerikomi.
My process is not familiar to most people as there are few colored porcelain Artists. So, in addition to creating my beautiful Artwork, I teach this process in live and virtual workshops.
I have a commitment to advancing knowledge in this colorful area of the pottery world so I am constantly pushing against the boundaries and asking “What if?”.
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