I’m never quite certain whether I chose to be a potter, or whether it chose me. But we are clearly hopelessly bound for this lifetime. And I am grateful for that.

For over thirty years I have chased after the subtleties of what makes a beautiful, functional, inspiring and even transcendent piece of pottery, from the techniques to be mastered in manipulating the clay to the chemistry involved in successfully getting it through the firing process.

I love the lexicon, the language, of traditional pottery forms and how they speak to our daily tasks. I love that these forms can be a canvas for so many decorative processes and possibilities from deeply layered surfaces that reflect the natural world, to bold political statements of change.

These days, I am using those recognizable forms as a surface to actually draw and paint with wet clay. Rather than brushing color on the surface, I am enjoying building layers of liquid slip clay so that the decoration is integrated into the pot itself. The glaze, then, accentuates those layers and brings them to life. My pieces are then fired to cone six in an electric kiln, or with wood in a wood kiln I fire communally with other local potters.

Pottery is what I do. And I have continued to do it not just because it is so richly complex a process, but because I believe pottery holds a unique place in both the art and craft worlds with its ability to transcend its function and aesthetics to actually participate in our daily lives. It reminds us of our humanity, of who we are. And that is why I believe that pottery is always contemporary, and always needed.