Clay responds to me. Amazing, inanimate object that lives and breathes and wants things form me. Making art with clay is the same thing as planting a seed. I push the seed down into the soil, give it water, give it light, expecting it to grow. When it does, Iım always surprised at its power. Likewise, I give to clay: I stretch, coax, blend, and feed ithoping for life. Clay know living better than I , so I make it a part of my diet. Wanting life from clay, I allow it to feed me, inform my process, give life to my forms. Then I can be a creator.
I create organic abstractions, expressions of mortality. My forms display the qualities of living things in their stretching, cracking, and sprouting. They reference bodies of plants, animals, and humans in various stages of life and from various perspectives. A magnified tissue cell compares in form , texture, and function an entire organ. Life is made up of both life and death. Although most of the individual pieces do not represent any one specific thing, it is appropriate to associate them with images suggesting life, feeding, mortality, and creation.
Green, I grew up with green. To grow up in the Pacific Northwest is to be surrounded by growth. All of that growth translated into optimism, a desire to learn, and a desire to share with others. So I became a teacher of Social Science. Teaching Geography, History, Psychology and so forth, I believed I could help others to love the world. However, by the time I graduated I knew that I would need more. Though I knew almost nothing about it, I dedicated myself to art. I found that in this discipline, I myself was most able to love the world. In teaching someone how to throw out a clay slab, or in developing my own artwork, Art provides a format in which I am able to share. Art helps me to participate in humanity at my best. I consider my time in graduate school to be the highlight of my life thus far. During this time I was both a teacher and a student, my two favorite titles. After finishing at Brigham Young University in January I returned to Portland, Oregon because I love it here. I am currently searching for teaching positions as the desire to share with others has never left me.
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