About

I never considered myself to be an artist.  But, I have always been drawn to beauty in words, music, nature, film, and design.  As a younger person, I tried to express beauty through writing.  After completing my BA and MA in English, I taught high school.   As I got older, I found outlets in design, clothing, food, and gardening.  But, it was never quite enough for me.  I was still searching.  Searching for new ways to express how I saw beauty in the world.  

Over twenty-five years ago, as a high school English teacher, I decided to enroll in a summer ceramics class at my local park district. The open studio class was held one evening a week for three hours in the senior center.  None of the people in the class was a trained artist.  We worked with low-fire clay and learned mostly through trial and error.  I looked forward to taking the class each summer.  After about 5 years, work, children, and life took me away from my newfound artistic outlet.  

Twenty-six years later, during Covid, I found myself taking extra long walks with my 14 year-old dog, Mickey.  As we traveled at a slower pace and explored new paths, I marveled at the changing seasons in new ways.  Free to wander for hours without needing to race home for carpools and school pickups, I started collecting natural found objects from the trails and roadsides and brought them home.   Walking by my children’s former school, I delighted in the shapes and colors of the ginkgo tree leaves that covered the ground.  I later learned that gingko trees drop all of their leaves in a day or two.  I had never noticed these beautiful trees and their sudden change from full trees to bare branches.  Often referred to as “living fossils” ginkgo trees have survived for millions of years.  In many cultures they symbolize longevity, endurance and resilience.  For so many years, Mickey and I had sat in the carpool line alongside these natural wonders.  Distracted by life’s schedules, I had never noticed the beautiful line of gingko trees just outside of my car.  Years after my kids had grown and become independent, Mickey and I shuffled along that same line of trees and took time to wonder at the gorgeous shapes and colors of the leaves that surrounded us.  I longed to capture the unique textures and colors I saw all around me and felt the strong pull to begin to create again.

In the summer of 2022, I enrolled in the same park district ceramics class I had taken 25 years earlier.  On my first day, I brought in a small collection of weeds, leaves, and wildflowers and immediately began pressing them into the clay.  Seeing the leaves and flowers dancing across the clay, I knew in that moment that I wanted to get more serious about committing my time and energy to ceramics.  But, I was a little intimidated.  I had never been formally trained or even fired up a kiln.  After a year in the class, and encouraged by my husband and children, my journey began.  I put together a small studio in my basement and purchased a kiln. I have been actively working on my art ever since.  In addition to my botanical ceramic pieces, I began to design and create porcelain pieces constructed using textures from antique crochet lace.  For next venture, I began to design and create bespoke pieces to memorialize life moments (weddings, celebration bouquets, home flower and vegetable gardens).  I also use heirloom pieces or interesting textures for the interior of these one-of-a-kind botanical keepsakes.

Gingko leaves feature in many of my pieces.  My enduring search for artistic expression has taken shape in my own form of living fossils: my botanic inspired ceramics.  I have aspired to create art that captures the everyday beauty we often overlook in nature's simplest shapes, colors, and textures.