Artist Statement

A wheel-thrower in practice but an abstract artist at heart, I am interested in structurally inventive sculptural forms that rely on the techniques of functional pottery that I learned in high school and honed on weekends at District Clay, a community studio in Washington, DC. Descended from a long line of makers and craftspeople—steelworkers, bricklayers, tailors, welders, machinists, and builders of trucks—I’ve always been drawn to clay because it is a medium used in industry, craft, and art. The organized mechanics of wheel-throwing and the precision required to make proportionally-curved vases, collared-in bottles, and well-fitting lids appeal to the logical part of my brain that served me well in my government career, but I also draw creative inspiration from architecture, nature, conversations with my arty dad, and traveling the world with my intrepid wife to places like the Picasso Museum in Barcelona and the Museum of Oriental Ceramics in Osaka.

Transformation and discovery are themes in my practice, from leading communal raku firings to building interactive “mulitpots” that invite the viewer to handle, move, and build new and different silhouettes from a tower of carefully assembled individual pots. I want consumers of my work to experience each piece’s weight, texture, color, and structure, regardless of whether the experience is through holding and using a piece of functional ware, stacking and unstacking a multipot, or observing a thrown and altered sculptural work from many angles.