Working with ceramics is an ongoing life of learning and discovering new techniques. The physical and emotional challenges of the clay making process give excitement and inspiration to my work.
In addition to exhibiting my work in galleries and at many fairs and festival throughout the country, I continue to work in my Emeryville, California studio. There I design and create wheel-thrown vase forms for flower arranging, and do slab building and extruding to produce my Ikebana vases. I specialize in high temperature reduction firing which makes my vases watertight. No lead is used in my glazes, so my platters and bowls are food safe. My studio also houses a showroom where I exhibit my work.
In the realm of art and craft, my favorite medium is wheel-thrown pottery clay. I am more drawn toward the three dimensional vessel form than the two dimension painting or drawing. I like vase forms that have been well crafted by traditional pottery techniques showing their wheel-thrown origins. I prefer wear that has been truly high fired to stone ware or porcelain temperatures, having had withstood the intensities of those processes.
Although my medium is stone ware with the use of traditional glazes, (Shino, Oribe, Tenmoku, Celadon, and Cobalt), my work is heavily influenced by the un-glazed wears of the Bizen style wood firings. My heroes include Japanese potters of Bizen, Echizen, Iga, Shigaraki, Hagi, Oribe, and Seto. Famous Clay Artists and Shoji Hamada, Kawai Kanjiro, Bernard Leach, as well as the more contemporary Isamu Noguchi and Peter Volcus have had a profound influence on my desire to make ceramics.
Calendar
|
