My Story
When I first touched clay, I was a visiting actor at the Cincinnati Shakespeare Company. In my free time, I signed up for my first ceramics class at "Annie's Mudpie Shop." I was obsessed. I would throw all day, then race to rehearsal at night, splattered with mud.
For years I chased two passions, clay by day and theatre by night. I sometimes smuggled work into my dressing room, to slip-trail pots during intermission. I clearly remember the matinee when, back home in Chicago, I hit all the marks of Lady MacBeth’s "Out, damned spot” speech in front of a paying audience while simultaneously working out the design for a new mug in my head. It was a moment of clarity. Shortly thereafter I bowed out of theatre and clay took center stage.
These days I can be found happily up to my elbows in clay. But I continue to tap those years spent inhabiting other lives, other cultures and time periods. I am still inspired by costume and how it tells the story of the person wearing it. How a vintage prop can open the door to a bygone era. How a certain exotic textile motif can nudge the mind halfway across the world. I try to build these same transportive qualities into my work, creating beautiful everyday objects with a story to tell, and the power to transport the beholder.
Lady MacBeth, 2011
“Out, damned Pot…!”