My discovery began in 2007 with classes on the wheel at
Greenwich House Pottery in New York City, taught by the incomparable Peter Lane of Peter Lane Clay in Brooklyn.
I love to create clay forms which invite you to stop for a moment...or two or three...and touch. Lift, stroke, inspect! Influenced by my first career as a professional dancer, and with a mentor’s mantra of "Never stop moving" as an ever-present whisper, the physicality of the process suits my dance-practiced soul. Dancing with Controlled Abandon...
I’m drawn to moving and rhythmic moments and styles - the madness and light of Van Gogh's thickly emotional brush strokes; luscious intertwined art nouveau vines; suggestive free-spirited depictions on Greek pottery; graceful haunting notes of Chopin on the piano or jazzy sensuous notes of a saxophone’s lament. All share the common theme of creating movement in and from stillness; a motif in the forms that I shape.
On the wheel, I build the foundation of the vessel, then with controlled abandon - alter, stretch, squeeze and decorate the clay – adding wobble and whimsy to accentuate fluidity, line and movement. Using the dance memories in my hands in shaping these terpsichorean forms, I long for the clay to move, even in final stillness.