As a hand-builder, I reflect on reality inspired by nature imagery and domestic icons. I also enjoy incorporating a spirit of play into my work to provide an element of surprise and comment on the world around us. My work is sometimes, but not always, autobiographical. It is always personal however, exploring memory, loss, death, life, decay, and what makes us who we are.

I grew up in the Boston area and moved to Washington, DC in 1989, when I began taking pottery classes, first at Eastern Market Pottery and then at Hinckley Pottery. Weekly wheel-throwing classes were my creative outlet during the first half of my more than 30-year career in exhibitions and education at the National Museum of Natural History. After a fifteen-year break to focus on career and family, I rediscovered pottery - particularly hand-building - and decided to pursue ceramics full time. I completed a Post-Baccalaureate Certificate of Ceramic Artisanry at UMass Dartmouth in May 2023 and now create ceramics in my studio and teach youth hand-building classes at District Clay Center.

Since returning to ceramics, I have been making metaphorical ceramic vessels that explore our relationship with the natural and cultural worlds. I honor historic forms, while providing new perspectives on age-old traditions and contemporary experiences. Using sculptural embellishment, painting, carving and other techniques of traditional pottery production, I add highly crafted details to the surface of the clay to both enhance the decorative aesthetic of the vessel and to communicate its meaning. Using white clay bodies allows me to reference traditional notions of refinement and elevate forms and ideas that might otherwise be overlooked.