The earthiness, the malleability, the transformation when fired; all aspects of clay intrigue me.

     I first took a pottery class in 1986 and it turned my life around. Since then my head has been full of pots just waiting to be formed by my hands.

    There are so many avenues to take in pottery, currently I’m engrossed in colored and translucent porcelain. I often paint layers of a dark slip (liquid clay) on a leather-hard vase, on top of that I paint several layers of a lighter slip. Then I carve back into the piece exposing a bit of the dark layer and some of the white clay. Light shines through the porcelain that has been revealed by the carving. At times I also incorporate pieces of colored clay into my wheel thrown pots which results in spirals of color going up the vase.

    When not making pots, I’m in my printmaking studio. Here I continue my interest in the layering and revealing of color. I often make viscosity prints which involve rolling a layer of thicker ink on the plate that the juicier ink underneath repels in places. This too, shows the layers of color underneath.

    Most recently I started incorporating printmaking with my pottery. After painting on newsprint with colored clay, I let it dry a bit and then roll it onto a leather-hard pot. Now the image is on the vase in reverse. It’s fun to incorporate both of my loves into one piece.

    I live in the mountains of Colorado, on the North Fork of the Colorado River and have the pleasure of viewing the natural world all around me. A lot of birds visit and I’m currently enamored with ravens, which show up in my monotypes quite often.

    There are limitless avenues to pursue in both ceramics and printmaking and I look forward to trying them.