bio

After a break from my jewelry studio to work in the complex medium of small humans, I've been playing with clay, making small sculptures with some big feelings and complicated thoughts. Maybe you can relate? The natural world still informs some of my work, as well as my ancestry and biology.

My first experience with clay was in art class in the first grade. I fell in love. The smell, the feel, the possibility of making something of any shape. I didn’t get to play with clay again until I took a throwing class at a local arts center after dropping out of college. I loved it but didn’t know what I wanted to say with it. Instead I dove into making jewelry and there I stayed for many years. I reached a point when I was ready for a change and began to play with porcelain and incorporate that into my jewelry and small sculpture. Then came the biggest medium change of all - baby humans (!!!). It felt too daunting to take on a new medium for a while but I have been slowly finding my way. This time, I have lots to say.

In contrast to the tool-intensive world of jewelry fabrication, I am entirely hand building in clay, using mid-fired red, white, and mason-stained stoneware. The things I’ve been drawn to making have fallen into a few categories or series of work. They are…

Heads
Ideas, beliefs, worries, feelings, energy, all coming out of heads. These might be self portraits of my inner workings. If you thought so, you wouldn’t be wrong.

Nature Poofs - naturus poofis
Tiny natural forms made big (or at least bigger)! This series is all about form and simplifying shapes until they feel soft and squishy - not physically, but in your feelings. They can hang on your wall solo or in little families.

Meolithic
I’ve been thinking a lot about my ancestors who worked in clay, probably out of necessity, but also hopefully with some joy. Then came many generations, maybe over many centuries, who didn’t have the option to create with their hands for the sake of beauty or personal expression. Somehow this desire lay dormant or unrealized in the dna during this time, and I am the first to get to actualize it in so so long. This series takes forms from Neolithic Chinese pottery and combines it with influences from biology and expressions of self.

Vessels
Mostly functional with a little personality. Friendly to warm beverages, plants, flowers, or whatever needs containing.


For many years, I made jewelry in silver, gold, enameled copper, and porcelain. You will still find some of those botanical and insect inspired things on view here.