A Life in Clay: Working With Earth, Fire, and Form

I don’t remember a time when I wasn’t drawn to making things. But the moment I knew I’d work with clay for a lifetime came later—on a visit to Assisi while studying world religions in graduate school. I had always been interested in form, in the way objects hold meaning, but working in a ceramic studio during that time made it clear: I needed to work with my hands, with earth, with fire.

Years of making, teaching, and refining my craft have followed. I completed my MFA at the New York State College of Ceramics and spent time learning from master potters. Now, in my Portland studio, I continue that exploration—through utilitarian pottery, through urns that hold memory, through teaching others to find their own connection to clay. The work is always changing, always new, always rooted in the long history of people shaping earth into something lasting.