Bio I grew up in a sub-rural community in the mountains above Santa Cruz, CA. I threw my first pot in High School in the early 1990¡¦s. Since then the process of making pots has steadily become a bigger and more important part of my life. While a student at San Francisco State University, where I graduated with a BA in Ceramics in 2003, I explored many formats eventually focusing on soda-fired functional pots. During my time in school I was given the opportunity to participate in several wood firings at Scott Parady¡¦s Pope Valley kiln. My involvement with firings at that kiln has been renewed within the last year. I now spend much of my artistic time making work for, and participating in the intensive practice of firing the kiln with a crew of dedicated and skilled individuals. I also achieve a different type of satisfaction when I fire my work with applied glazes in standard gas kilns. I have participated in several group shows throughout the country and received awards at many of them. I currently work as the Lab Tech at the College of Marin Sculpture and Ceramics departments and maintain a studio practice at my home in Oakland.
STATEMENT ON WOOD FIRED WORK I choose to wood fire many of my pots because the resulting work is rich with information gathered through a process that is demanding of the artist and work itself. The extreme amount of human energy required to successfully fire an anagama kiln is far beyond any other firing process. Through this process a true connection is made with every aspect of the firing, from preparing the wood that provides both the fuel and the finished surface, to loading the kiln, to becoming in-tune with the firing cycle over many days. All of this involvement makes itself evident in the resulting artwork. The richness of a successful wood fired surface cannot be achieved by taking any shortcuts. Creating pottery forms that successfully integrate with the surface gained through wood firing is the challenge I undertake whenever I make work for a firing. I focus on making functional work because the context in which it will be used and appreciated requires picking up and getting to know the pots and allowing them to tell the story of how they were created.
|
|