We do not want merely to see beauty, though, God knows, even that is bounty enough. We want something else which can hardly be put into words--to be united with the beauty we see, to pass into it, to receive it into ourselves, to bathe in it, to become part of it. – C.S. Lewis. In my work this Romantic ideal of our relationship to the natural world conflicts with the reality of our current impact on the environment.  My pieces are in part responses to environmental threats including air pollution, global warming, clear-cutting, and pesticide misuse; and their consequences to our health and the environment including rapidly diminishing plant and animal species.  They also borrow from myth, art history, figures of speech and other cultural touchstones.  In some pieces aspects of the human figure stand-in for us and act out sometimes harrowing, sometimes humorous transformations which illustrate our current relationship with the natural world. In others, animals take on anthropomorphic qualities when they are given safety equipment to attempt to protect them from man-made environmental threats. In each case the union between man and nature is shown to be one of friction and discomfort with the implication that we too are vulnerable to being victimized by our destructive practices. I hand sculpt each piece out of porcelain, often building a solid form and then hollowing it out. Smaller forms are built petal by petal, branch by branch and allow me the chance to get immersed in close study of the structure of a blossom or a bee. I chose porcelain for its luminous and ghostly qualities as well as its strength and ability to show fine texture. It highlights both the impermanence and fragility of natural forms in a dying ecosystem, while paradoxically, being a material that can last for thousands of years and is historically associated with high status and value.    I see each piece as a captured and preserved specimen, a painstaking record of endangered natural forms and a commentary on our own culpability.

EDUCATION

Brown University, Providence, RI

BA in English and American Literature , Masters of the Arts of Teaching (MAT) in English, 1994/1995                                                             



EXHIBITIONS

BAM Biennial 2010: Clay Throwdown!, juried group exhibition, Bellevue Arts Museum, Bellevue, WA (August), 2010
 
NEXT Chicago, group exhibition with Patrajdas Contemporary Art, Chicago, IL (April), 2010
 
Bright and White, small group exhibition, Mindy Solomon Gallery, St. Petersburg, FL (April), 2010
 
Earth Matters, NCECA (National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts) invitational group exhibit, The Galleries at Moore College of Art and Design, Philadelphia, PA (March), 2010
 
Summer Workshop Preview Exhibition, group exhibition at Santa Fe Clay, Santa Fe, NM (March), 2010                                                                                                                                                                                                         

CERAM-A-RAMA, Ceramics Research Center gala fundraiser live auction/exhibit, ASU Art Museum, Tempe (AZ) (March), 2010

Corporeal Manifestations, group invitational exhibit, Mutter Museum, Philadelphia, PA (February), 2010

Sitka Center Art Invitational, group exhibit, World Forestry Center, Portland, OR, 2009                        

Proverbial Porcelain, short-listed sculpture exhibition for the Zelli Porcelain Award, Zelli Porcelain, London, UK, 2009

OPA/Hokkaido Exchange Exhibition, OPA juried show, Sapporo Contemporary Museum, Sapporo, Japan, 2009

Curiosities, four-person exhibition, Santa Fe Clay, Santa Fe, NM, 2009

Feats of Clay 2009, Lincoln Arts and Culture Foundation, juried exhibition Gladding McBean Factory, Lincoln, CA, 2009

A Mixed Bag of Small Ceramic Wonders, invitational exhibition, Crossman Gallery, University of Wisconsin –Whitewater, Whitewater, WI,  2009

CraftForms 2008, international juried exhibition, Wayne Art Center, Wayne, PA, 2008

Envisioning a Future, juried show, South Seattle Community College Art Gallery, Seattle, WA, 2008

After Eden, solo exhibition, Beet Gallery, Portland, OR, 2008

Sculpted Green, 2008 Bellevue Sculpture Exhibition, Bellevue City Hall, Bellevue, WA, 2008

Blackfish Window Gallery, solo window exhibition, Portland, OR, 2008

Viewpoint: Ceramics 2008  national juried show, Hyde Art Gallery, Grossmont College, El Cajon, CA, 2008

Clay? II,  international ceramics exhibition, jurors: Jamie Walker, Akio Takamori, and Doug Jeck, Kirkland Arts Center, Kirkland, WA, 2008

Supernatural, juried group show for Portland Institute of Contemporary Art\\\'s TBA:07, Swigert Commons, Pacific Northwest College of Art, Portland, OR, 2007

2007 Craft Biennial, Hoffman Gallery, Oregon College of Art and Craft, Portland, OR, 2007

The Figure: Transcribing the Human Form, national juried show, Campbell Hall Gallery, Western Oregon University, Monmouth, OR. 2007