Artist Statement
I grew up in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. It is the area that attracted the Amish to settle and establish a farm-based community due to the rich soil. Each winter I would watch the earth lie dormant for months. In the springtime it was awakened for a new season of growth by teams of mule led plows turning under the winter-crusted soil. Flocks of birds would follow on the heels of the teams feeding on the abundance of grubs and insects revealed by the plow blades. Watching this each spring and the growth that followed I became tied to the earth. I have tended a garden of one sort or another for as long as I can remember because I have a desire to have my hands in the earth.
It only seemed natural that I found myself working in clay as I grew older. I work in clay because of the connection that it gives me to the earth. I am attracted to the connections that my finished work makes with other people. Making strong functional pieces that become a part of someone’s life is an underlying motivation in my work. The potential shift in the level of consciousness of the user is something that I find incredibly compelling. We live in an age where machines have replaced many of the handmade objects, which previously added richness to our lives, with objects devoid of meaning. I feel the shift in consciousness occurs because something of who I am comes out in every pot, and I believe that many people want to connect with that.
Forms and images from the natural world draw me in each day as I walk around. I strive to see better each day so I can allow these things to seep into my work. I work in clay because it continually asks questions of me.
What does it mean to be an American potter in the 21st century?
How can I affect change in someone with my work?
How can I weave my life and my pots together so my pots begin
to speak about who I am?
Each day questions like these keep me investigating my ties
to the earth and humanity.