I was introduced to ceramics while studying at the School of Visual Art in New York for my MFA and, in short, I fell in love. Along the way I’ve been inspired by residencies at Greenwich House Pottery and the Henry Street Settlement, and also by my life as a designer and editor of many exhibition catalogs and art volumes, including monographs on artists I admire, such as Louise Bourgeois, Jenny Holzer and Lynda Benglis. To study their work closely is to change the way you see and think.
Over time my work has evolved to address ideas about the natural world, abstraction, loss, regeneration, the past, and, of course, beauty. Extending my artistic practice to the creation of functional pieces gives me a new way to bring this sculptural aesthetic into the everyday life of our homes and gathering places.
Each item is made in my studio in Bushwick, Brooklyn. The use of white glaze over terra-cotta in this collection is inspired by the painted mixed-media sculpture of Cy Twombly, who once remarked, “white is my marble.”
Most meaningfully for me, I make each piece using hand-building techniques where touch is recorded in the clay, embedding each mark and gesture with a memory. It is an inherently imperfect technique that touches on our human condition and, to my mind, is all the more compelling.