I focus my attention on making beautiful handmade utilitarian ceramics that enhance our daily lives. I am always striving to achieve excellence with every piece that I create.
I have always been a maker. From my earliest days making mud pies in the backyard, working with my hands is the activity that brings me the greatest sense of peace and happiness.
My first foray into the world of clay was in Mrs. Mott’s junior high school crafts class where I got a brief introduction to hand building and an even shorter introduction to throwing on a kick wheel. High school crafts courses offered the chance to explore a variety of mediums, but no ceramics.
It was not until junior college that I took my first real ceramics course at Sacramento City College. I suppose it was luck that I was in the right place at the right time, when local potter Nicholas Guerrero of Omega Studios came to City College looking to hire a couple of studio assistants. I managed to land one of the positions at the studio and learned a great deal being in a professional environment. It was during my time at Omega Studios that I was officially bitten by the “ceramics bug”.
After City College, I moved to San Francisco to pursue my interest in the arts. I enrolled at San Francisco State University where I earned a Bachelor of Arts degree. During my years at SFSU, I had the opportunity to study at Waseda University in Tokyo, Japan as an exchange student. During my studies in Japan, my proposal for an independent study was accepted and I had the opportunity to live and work in Mashiko, Japan with local potter Tsudo Takeo. It was in Mashiko, that I had the opportunity to experience working outside of a university art program and this renewed my love of of making pottery for daily use.
After college, life got in the way and I took a sixteen year break from working with clay. I entered an apprenticeship program in the construction trades, and trained as a tile setter with the Bricklayers and Allied Craftworkers Union. I continue to do this work today.
I found my way back to ceramics by taking classes at The Clay Studio in San Francisco, California in 1997 and entered a private studio space in 1998. Until its closure in late 2011, I taught classes at “The Clay Studio,” an established and highly regarded clay workspace. After moving and completing the build out of our new studio, I continue to teach classes at sfclayworks. Through teaching, I discovered my enjoyment of sharing my passion for clay. It is always a joy to see others experience the same excitement I did years before.
In the last few years, my work has been focused on making utilitarian pottery with porcelain clay, fired in a gas reduction kiln to approximately 2350* F. I have a particular interest in working with the ever changing and elusive carbon trap shino glazes.