“Learn, do. Learn more, do more.” That thought is constantly running through my head. I love love love learning new things! To the point that I have to stop myself from always experimenting.
About Me
The great thing about pottery is there will never be a time when I can say I know it all, I’ve mastered this medium. It’s a continual learning process and it’s art and science! Chemistry, physics, and mathematics. There’s always a new challenge and a new thing to learn. In fact, if I could go back in time, I’d apologize to my sixth-grade math teacher Mr. Peterson. He was right, I do use math as a grownup.I have a picture that sits on my desk that I made in preschool and luckily my parents saved and framed for me. It’s a crayon drawing of a girl on a color swirled magic carpet flying over multi-colored trees and flowers. In one corner is the sun beaming down and in the other corner is a drippy rain cloud. The title is “A Girl Dreaming.” I look at that picture every day when I sit down to work and think how lucky I am to be an artist.
Creating new artwork and bringing my ideas to life is my passion. I love creating functional pieces of art that also bring beauty to the world. It can be hard to let go of a new piece because they all feel so personal but knowing my artwork brings someone pleasure make me so happy.
All of my work is created from my original illustrations and no two pieces are the same. I work mainly in porcelain and porcelaineous clay bodies. Wheel thrown and painted with underglaze; I carve each piece using a technique called Sgraffito. While the interior of the work is always glazed, the exterior is often left unglazed and hand sanded to an eggshell finish. The tactile quality of the tool marks begs to be touched. It makes me so happy to see the look on someone’s face when they see my work. It’s a further pleasure to watch then pick the piece up, cup it in both hands and sigh at how soft the surface feels.
I’ve been an artist my whole life. It’s at the core of my being and runs through my DNA. I have a Bachelor of Fine Arts in graphic design and worked for years as a commercial illustrator and Art Director. I’ve worked in many different mediums including printmaking, stained glass, and metal work. Discovering ceramics and Sgraffito changed everything for me. It’s a medium that uses all of my skills and allows me to stretch myself to learn more.
Examples of My Work
Fun Facts
- Baking – I make amazing homemade scones. They are so good that we’ve been eating them daily for breakfast for nearly twenty years and they are still wonderful every day.
- Claim to Fame – I was chosen to do a pantomime on television when I was in grade school. I was so afraid when the director gave me the cue to begin that I froze on live television! Luckily, I realized “the show must go on”, snapped out of it, and was able to do my pantomime of a princess and a frog.
- Biggest Compliment – “You’re smart and creative just like a farmer.” My sister said this to me years ago when I was trying to come up with a solution to something that needed fixing. Our grandfather was a farmer and we’d watched him solve every conceivable problem and fix anything that was broken. What a great compliment!
- Prize – In sixth grade I won first prize in a state art competition. I won a Maple tree and my dad helped me plant it in our yard.
- Happy Place – I’d love to live in a tiny cabin by a stream in the woods. But I live in a city so we go out hiking in the woods as often as possible. Happily, I live in Minnesota, Land of ten thousand lakes and a bazillion trees.
More About Me
What do you wish you could tell your younger artist self?
You can do it. Just keep working toward your goals. Don’t let other people’s fears and negativity make you doubt yourself. Keep experimenting. Try new things. Be creative any chance you get. It will be so worth it in the end.
What one (art) item can you not do or go without?
A pencil. I can do so much with a simple pencil. Draw, obviously, but also burnish, scratch, carve, transfer, etc. Such a great tool.
What do you want to learn next?
I’m just itching to learn how to weld. I have so many ideas of creating large sculptures combining glass, ceramics and metal.