Artist Statement

Inspired by contemporary dance and improvisation, I make ceramic sculptures that record and convey the essential feeling of embodied sensations in forms that derive from pottery concepts and methodologies.  My work can be summarized as process-based experimentation with an interest in pursuing advancements in technique and expression.  Exploring through a dynamic process of making and experimentation, I incorporate multi-disciplinary activities (e.g., dance, improvisation, drawing, film, and photography) with the intention to create innovative works that are animated and expressive. 

In my studio practice, I have been exploring processes and techniques specific to ceramics, forming pots that reference their creation on the wheel but that also go beyond tradition and venture towards sculpture and dance.  I'm interested in language that is expressed through the body in its more physical or active state.  The energy that resonates in the body and what it has to say in response to experiences, stories, and perceptions is uniquely compelling and commanding.  How the body moves through its actions in response to feelings (despair, anger, joy, love, pain, etc.,) packs a powerful punch in just a simple gesture or shift in the body.  It's this language through movement of the body in its most present and tell-tailing state that directs my research and practice.  Throughout my career, I have been exploring the relationship between body, form, language and expression with the intention to capture not only the illusion of movement in my ceramic sculpture, but also an embodied sensation.  I draw upon contemporary dance and improvisation as a source for inspiring designs that I can echo in my ceramic work.

I work intuitively and improvise throughout the construction process with the intention to capture a bodily expression.  Improvisation is a methodology that I employ in my ongoing practice; it supports processes that allow me to challenge, develop and discover innovative methods of working in the field of ceramics technically, conceptually, emotionally as well as physically.  I am most interested in how improvisation juxtaposes spontaneity (impulsive actions) and intuition (embodied knowledge) in an immediate action and how this relates to concepts of time. In my process, I deliberately focus on improvisational activities that involve physical movements of my body as a means to connect with and understand the sensation or feeling of a gesture in motion.