BIO
Art has been a passion of mine for years. Some of my fondest memories of my youth are of accompanying my mother to the museum and her art classes. I studied art history in college and graduate school, receiving both a B.A. and M.A. in that field. Before moving to Seattle, I worked in several art galleries and museums including the Smithsonian’s Museum of African Art and National Gallery of Art, both in Washington, D.C. Since my love of art was never confined to just studying its history, I also continued to create it taking many classes in painting, sculpture, photography and ceramics.
Soon after moving to the Northwest, I enrolled in the Art Institute of Seattle to study graphic art and started working independently in that field. One of my painting instructors there was the late Seattle artist, William “Bill” Cumming. He inspired me to not give up on my own artistic pursuits. By the 1990s, I began focusing again on my studio art, taking many additional classes and workshops with notable ceramists, Carol Gouthro, Tip Tolland and Patti Warashina. I was accepted as one of Kirkland Arts Center’s Resident Ceramic Artists in the Spring of 2006.
Presently, my mediums of choice are ceramics and painting. As an artist, I enjoy the process whether working ideas out in three dimensions while sculpting with clay or layering paint on a two dimensional canvas. Movement, organic shapes, color and texture prevail in my art. Narrative is also an important element for me and therefore I title most of my work, hoping to invoke a story.
My ceramics are hand built and primarily decorative, although I love creating pieces with just a hint of functionality to them. As a ceramist, I predominantly work with low fire clay and glazes. I love the intense color I can get from firing at this temperature. Many of my pieces are underglazed and/or glazed, some are mixed media and some are completed with cold finishes. Often I use or incorporate terrasigillatta in my work, a finish used centuries ago by the Romans and other ancient cultures. At times, I enjoy escaping from my more labor intensive creations to construct simpler pieces with faster conclusions, the type that raku and pit firings can provide. The accidental and surprise effects which occur during these kinds of firings delight me as does the smoke and flames, where the entire process becomes an exercise in the ephemeral.
Most of my paintings are abstracted landscapes, memories of places I’ve traveled or seen in the nature that surrounds me at my home studio or elsewhere. As a painter, I prefer working with oils, its long and slow process suits me, as does its thickness and fluidity, although, I have used watercolors and acrylics when I desire more transparency or need a quicker result.
My art, whether it be in ceramics or painting has many influences and sources, but my inspiration is always from Nature. I seek to discover the ever changing spirit in things, fleeting moments in time in a real or imagined world.
FULL RESUME
Art has been a passion of mine for years. Some of my fondest memories of my youth are of accompanying my mother to the museum and her art classes. I studied art history in college and graduate school, receiving both a B.A. and M.A. in that field. Before moving to Seattle, I worked in several art galleries and museums including the Smithsonian’s Museum of African Art and National Gallery of Art, both in Washington, D.C. Since my love of art was never confined to just studying its history, I also continued to create it taking many classes in painting, sculpture, photography and ceramics.
Soon after moving to the Northwest, I enrolled in the Art Institute of Seattle to study graphic art and started working independently in that field. One of my painting instructors there was the late Seattle artist, William “Bill” Cumming. He inspired me to not give up on my own artistic pursuits. By the 1990s, I began focusing again on my studio art, taking many additional classes and workshops with notable ceramists, Carol Gouthro, Tip Tolland and Patti Warashina. I was accepted as one of Kirkland Arts Center’s Resident Ceramic Artists in the Spring of 2006.
Presently, my mediums of choice are ceramics and painting. As an artist, I enjoy the process whether working ideas out in three dimensions while sculpting with clay or layering paint on a two dimensional canvas. Movement, organic shapes, color and texture prevail in my art. Narrative is also an important element for me and therefore I title most of my work, hoping to invoke a story.
My ceramics are hand built and primarily decorative, although I love creating pieces with just a hint of functionality to them. As a ceramist, I predominantly work with low fire clay and glazes. I love the intense color I can get from firing at this temperature. Many of my pieces are underglazed and/or glazed, some are mixed media and some are completed with cold finishes. Often I use or incorporate terrasigillatta in my work, a finish used centuries ago by the Romans and other ancient cultures. At times, I enjoy escaping from my more labor intensive creations to construct simpler pieces with faster conclusions, the type that raku and pit firings can provide. The accidental and surprise effects which occur during these kinds of firings delight me as does the smoke and flames, where the entire process becomes an exercise in the ephemeral.
Most of my paintings are abstracted landscapes, memories of places I’ve traveled or seen in the nature that surrounds me at my home studio or elsewhere. As a painter, I prefer working with oils, its long and slow process suits me, as does its thickness and fluidity, although, I have used watercolors and acrylics when I desire more transparency or need a quicker result.
My art, whether it be in ceramics or painting has many influences and sources, but my inspiration is always from Nature. I seek to discover the ever changing spirit in things, fleeting moments in time in a real or imagined world.
FULL RESUME