Artist Statement

I think how one grows up greatly affects who they are, how they view the world, and what kind of beauty they are drawn to.

When I was a child, I grew up in a forest: in a neighborhood in a forest. I loved the trees, the vast amounts of leaves in fall, playing in those piles with their pungent smell, a sweet nuttiness, the smell that most reminds me of fall (although I wish it were something like fresh baked pumpkin roll or hot spiced cider). It was in such a leaf pile that I saw my first rainbow, a magical sight on a crisp foggy morning. This is why I reference leaves and nature so readily in my work. 

I have always loved contrast. And pattern. I recall a particularly loud thunderstorm one night while I was left home with a sitter. The sky lit up, flashes at a time, the black silhouettes of naked trees against a vivid blue sky. There is something captivating about contrast. 

My love of contrast translates into being enamored by wood and linoleum cuts, and also the art of paper cutting. I use the process of linocuts in the making of pots. I will make one and then use it as a sort of stamp or a spring mold. This enables me to get a high level of detail in each piece without spending hours and hours. I also cut with my Speedball lino cutter directly into some pieces,leaving the look of a linoleum print. I love the stylization that the wood block and lino print affords to the artist.

I have always valued the hard work of hand making things from scratch. When I was a child my mother was in a quilting group – at Gracie Sweeney’s house. She was a kind elderly woman who thought I was her namesake. I remember playing under the large table-top-like frame the ladies sat around, seeing only their legs and shoes, one hand under to pass the needles back up, watching the in and out of each stitch, the chatter and laughter of the women in the background. I dearly treasure this memory. I hope one day to make a quilt of my own. But that aside, I am drawn to clay because of the hard work it takes. Having an object that is handmade from scratch is a special treasure. 

I have a friend who refers to herself as a “maker.” I like that; the simplicity of it, the humbleness of it. Do I consider what I make art? Sometimes, certainly. But sometimes I just want to make something useful, something you might not put on a wall or pedestal in a gallery, but something that nonetheless brings a spark of beauty into your life. Why is beauty important to the human soul? Beauty brings life to the mundane, like a spring of water to the dry and dismal. It gives us something to hope for, something to spur us on when life gets difficult. It is a glimpse of light in the darkness. Without beauty we wither. So I am an artist, a maker of things that bring a touch of beauty to the everyday lives of real people.

About the Artist

I grew up in State College, Pennsylvania. I attended Penn State University where I earned a BFA in ceramics under world-renowned artists Chris Staley and Liz Quakenbush. They afforded me knowledge in hand-building and wheel-throwing that was beyond comparison. I then got married, made and sold enough work to buy a wheel and a kiln, and had kids. I am a wife and a mother, and I am a potter, a ceramic artist. I work in clay in my basement in our row home in Lancaster City, Pennsylvania. Somewhere over the years of volunteering in my children’s schools I realized that I really loved being around kids, and so I went back to work as a Kindergarten aid in our school district. In the darkness of Covid I learned that I have more to give than being an aid, so I went back to school at Millersville University and am in the process of earning a teaching certificate in Art Education. I have been working in clay for over 20 years, more intensely at certain times than others. That happens when you are a mother of three. I love being a wife and a mom. I love working in clay, and I love opportunities to teach ceramics to others.