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.

  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 stong functional pieces that become a part of someone's life is an underlying motivation in my work. The potential shift in 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 this shift occurs because something of who I am comes out in every pot, and I believe that many people want to connect with that. I am hopeful that my pieces impart some measure of additional significance to the daily rituals of eating, drinking, and using handmade objects.

  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. Patterns on orchid flowers growing in my greenhouse are translated to the surfaces of my cups. Newly emerging bamboo shoots influence the swollen, patterned, geomentric forms that I make. I work in clay because it continually asks questions of me and how I live my life.

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 pots and my life together so they begin to speak about who I am?

Each day questions like these keep me investigating my ties to the earth and to humanity.