I was born in an out-of-the-way town in northern upstate New York, called Massena. I wasn’t introduced to art and ceramics until late in high school but knew immediately that it was what I wanted to do. I then went to Alfred University where I received my BFA in 2003. At Alfred I used my first handmade bowl and have been using and making pots ever since. They have become a part of my daily life, enriching even the most familiar of daily routines.

I have always been an organizer. I’m attracted to brick buildings, tiled roofs and knit cloth. It was because of this interest in symmetry and the organization of like pieces that at school I found myself in the library revisiting books on Islamic tile and pottery, Persian painting and historical architecture. I felt connected to them on a very immediate level because of their sense of history and tradition as well as for the
beauty of their rich colors and patterns.

My work is about function and pattern. Each piece is wheel thrown and glazed with
a variety of underglazes and then covered with a clear glaze. The patterns are hand drawn and therefore vary and are fluid. I create patterns and structure through the repetition of marks. Placing these dense patterns on small pieces makes them seem larger. It’s about bringing a small every-day object to the foreground.