Behind The Vessel

Artist statement

I currently make porcelain pots, fired in my high fire gas reduction kiln and in wood kilns throughout western North Carolina. My work centers around two of my most passionate loves: food and flowers. I strive to make classic, elegant shapes that serve to elevate their everyday uses.

I make wheel thrown, functional, pots. I use both electric and treadle style wheels. Having the option to use either tool is important to me. I spend much of my time designing simple, yet refined, shapes with thoughtful attention to handles and their placement, lips and spouts of drinking and pouring vessels, and trimmed or accentuated feet, to promote functionality. I fire to cone 11 in my gas reduction kiln and also fire in various wood kilns throughout Western North Carolina. When firing with gas, I use a shino glaze that is very high in soda ash, and also use a green celadon. These two types of glazes have been used by ceramicists for centuries and I love the idea that an ancient technology is still interesting and relevant today. I have developed a specific firing program to promote and enhance carbon trapping for my shino, and while the end results are highly variable, they are always equally exciting. I have also been wood firing for the past few years. One goal for firing with wood is to make work that serves as a canvas for that process. As an example, my “egg” forms have a carved surface that creates nooks for ash to land and highlights the texture. I have 3 primary influences and inspirations: Depression glassware, Scandinavian design, and the ceramics community in North Carolina. Depression ware was mainly manufactured in the Ohio River Valley (where I am originally from) and was sought after because it was an attractive product that was attainable for the common person and yet today has retained and improved its value becoming heirloom quality. Scandinavian design is characterized by simplicity and functionality. Everything has a purpose, but that is achieved in the most elegant way. And finally, I am greatly influenced by my ceramics community in WNC. I truly believe a rising tide lifts all ships, and through our common interest and discourse of our medium we will all find success.

BIO

I grew up in a small rural town on the outskirts of Stanford, Kentucky. My mom was a high school English teacher and librarian and my dad was a welder.

I entered college with the dream of being a broadcast journalist. All of that radically changed in 2005 when my dad died after a long battle with cancer. My ultimate life goal became a search for what would make me happy and how I could share that joy with others.

What brought me the most peace and happiness was in the Art Barn at the edge of campus at Centre College, learning to express myself through clay. That I could make something, and then use it, and marvel at the tiny details and intricacies within never ceased to amaze me. I knew I could spend a lifetime in search of the “perfect” pot—its form and ratios, surface design and feel, functionality—and that began a lifelong quest.

After graduation from Centre, I went to Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts in Gatlinburg, TN for work study and ceramic workshops. It was there that I realized it was possible to make a living making things.

At the end of that summer I was asked to join Pigeon River Pottery, firing their bisque kilns and high fire gas kilns and making production pottery. I worked there for three years. Most of my colleagues did not come from an art background, and they had found ways of working and problem solving that strengthened my knowledge I had learned at Centre. That knowledge is still a part of my own studio practice.

I moved to Asheville in 2010 to be surrounded by the rich pottery history of North Carolina. I worked as a studio assistant for Odyssey ClayWorks, and for other potters in the region before I finally established my own studio.

In 2018 I moved my studio from a community space to my basement, built a kiln shed for my gas kiln and joined Clayspace Co-Op in Asheville’s River Arts District. I fired a wood kiln for the first time in March 2016 and didn’t really know what I was getting myself into. I fell in love again with a new way of thinking, not just about clay, but about fire. I am currently amassing a giant pile of my own kiln bricks, with plans to build a wood kiln on my property in 2022.

My studio practices continue to grow and evolve, but will forever remain faithful to seeking happiness. For me, that happiness is at my wheel, making pots, and seeing others enjoy my work.

ABOUT SHINO GLAZE

Shino glaze was developed in Japan in the 16th century. It contains a high percentage of nepheline syenite (feldspar) and clays such as ball clays and kaolin. In theory this glaze should not work due to having no added silica, the glass-former added to most glazes.

The magic of shino is in the firing process where soda ash migrates to the surface of the glaze, trapping the carbon present in the atmosphere during firing. At 1470 degrees Fahrenheit (cone 012), the kiln is starved of oxygen, creating a reducing atmosphere and held in reduction until the end of firing at 2350 degrees Fahrenheit (cone 10). The variation in pattern and color on the glaze surface depends on where the piece was located in the kiln and how much carbon was trapped during reduction.

Currently, all of my work is made with porcelain clay on the potter’s wheel and most of my work is glazed with the same shino glaze. I like working with shino because of the range of color and intriguing variety of surface patterns that result from this unpredictable glaze. The colors and patterns all harmonize together, whether carbon-spot black or flashings of peach and cranberry.