Artist Statement

My current work focuses on large, wheel thrown, lidded jars and storage vessels made with high iron clays that fire to a range of rich grays and browns. These vessels have expansive exterior surfaces which I use to explore the relationships between volume, texture and glaze. I choose to use glazes, especially ash glazes, that break or flow across the textured surfaces of my pots and highlight these relationships.

I am attracted to traditional Korean unglazed stoneware and porcelain and to the unglazed stoneware from the Shigaraki and Wizen ancient kiln sites in Japan. Fired with wood, these vessels flashed to record the turbulent atmosphere inside of the kiln. Atmospheric firing is transformative and the surfaces that result are unpredictable and often incredibly beautiful. In my own work, I use soda and wood atmospheric firings to achieve this transformation.