Featured Work

Echoes of Home

This collection of work exhibits my multivalent connection to the Appalachian Mountain region. For me, the area’s rolling ridges and vast mountainscapes evoke comfort and familiarity. Home to my earliest memories, this deep-seated sense of place shapes my identity and understanding of the world.

Surrendering control allows the most interesting things in life and art to happen. Through this exhibit, I break down root understandings about the meaning of my own existence. Through explorations of the intersections among time, place, memory and the land, I am continually discovering what it means to be home.

This exhibit is a comparative study of change. Subtle references to impermanence and distortion of memory echo throughout. The impurities of locally-sourced wild clay are indicative of its origin. The material remembers, it documents my bodily gestures enacted upon it. Rhythms of breath and song are amplified in space and scale. While regional voices demonstrate the reverberation of traditional sounds over time, historical photographs and field-recordings provide a reservoir of resonant narratives that give presence to the past.

About

Artist Statement

The rural Blue Ridge Mountains shaped my interactions with the world and my artwork. I grew up closely observing natural growth patterns and cycles of transformation. I am inspired by intricacies of organic growth and structures of decay. I draw from sources as diverse as the rigid lace-like skeletal remains of a leaf and the fluid movement of water or flame. My ceramic sculptures refer to the asymmetrical balance of nature, imperfection and impermanence.

I alter soft clay forms with curves that are gestural and inviting, balancing full form with skeletal voids. In the wood kiln, the accumulation of wood ash accentuates these voluptuous forms with colorful flashing marks and textural variations. From the prolonged and volatile atmosphere of the kiln, each piece emerges exhibiting nuanced surfaces and dramatic geologic distortions.

Wood firing has informed the evolution of my aesthetic. The altering and intricate carving in my work requires patience, attention to detail, and serves to ironically and joyfully contradict the anticipated vagaries of firing with wood.

I deliberately push my material limits. Seeking out avenues of the unexpected, I explore the thresholds of materials and processes. Merging refined skill with contingent systems affords compelling opportunities for continual transformation and growth.