Artist Statement

I create hand-built ceramic vessels, sculptures, and works on paper that invite sustained attention. Through form, texture, and space, my work explores how slowing down can deepen our experience of the objects we live with, the landscapes we inhabit, and the relationships that shape us. Living among the lakes and scattered prairie and sedge remnants of Madison, Wisconsin, I draw inspiration from the natural world and from the enduring connections—both visible and unseen—that continue to influence my life. Whether working with clay or paper, glaze or paint, brush or pen, the physical act of making becomes a practice of presence.

I am drawn to minimalism, organic form, and the quiet evidence of the handmade. My ceramics vessels and sculptures balance restrained geometry with soft, irregular contours that invite lingering rather than immediate understanding. Layered textures, restrained glazes, and subtle shifts in color invite both contemplation and touch. Rather than concealing the maker's hand, I often allow gesture and variation to remain visible, giving every piece its own distinct character.

My orb vessels embody a beauty that exists because of, and not in spite of, imperfection. Intentionally irregular, their uneven edges, gently asymmetrical forms, and subtle marks left by the making process invite a slower kind of looking. I use glazes that allow for soft, natural surface decoration, with color patterns reminiscent of landscape, water, stone, and sky.

My Absence and Presence ceramic series is an ongoing exploration of how form, space, and emotion coexist within a single object. Shaped by hand, each sculpture centers an opening or void that draws attention to the space within the form rather than the object alone—an active space where light gathers, shadows shift, and the viewer’s attention moves inward. This inward gaze invites reflection on the boundaries between presence and emptiness.

My wall-mounted ceramic pieces extend my exploration of absence, presence, and what remains. Shaped by hand and marked with layered, weathered surfaces, these forms suggest fragments altered by time—objects worn, eroded, or uncovered rather than newly made. Irregular openings pierce their surfaces, creating passages of light and shadow and drawing attention beyond the physical object. Hung individually or in shifting arrangements, the pieces become part of a larger composition in which the spaces between them are as significant as the forms themselves. Together, they explore the quiet traces of time, memory, and transformation that remain when something has changed or passed.

I create works on paper that explore the relationships between form, line, color, and space. My recent work, Form and Field, grew from my ceramic practice, where I’ve been interested in organic contours, asymmetry, openings, and the space held within and around a form. In painting, I translate these explorations into a two-dimensional language of repeated shapes, shifting contours, internal divisions, and open fields of color.

My images are created through layers of oil stick, wax pencil, graphite, and found paper, allowing marks to accumulate, soften, and sometimes obscure what lies beneath. I’m drawn to the tension between structure and intuition: forms may be repeated and altered, while color and gesture develop through an open-ended process of looking and responding. Repetition creates a sense of connection, while variation keeps each form distinct.

I hope my work invites quiet curiosity, encouraging viewers to linger with uncertainty rather than resolution, and to discover meaning through observation and reflection.