ARTIST

Biography

Life is a lot about place.  Over the years, “home” has shifted across countries and continents and delivered a richness in languages and cultures, inspiration and challenges that permeate my making practice.  Originally having studied painting and printmaking (in Maine and France), it was my work with local farmers in a remote village in west Cameroon that triggered my gut-pull to the medium of clay.  A stint at Penland School of Crafts, NC solidified this interest and subsequent experiences from New England to New Mexico initiated and strengthened my passion for wood-firing in particular.  The tidal pull of the world led me to ultimately settle in Bali, Indonesia where I continue to focus my creativity in both clay and paint, enjoying the dynamic of two very different mediums and their possible confluence.  Wood-fire ceramics has dominated the picture and led me to numerous residencies and conferences globally, as well as to pioneer several wood-firing kilns in Bali. 

In 2010 I co-founded Gaya Ceramic Arts Center (Ubud, Bali) and have since been directing its growth: developing an international workshop program and artist residency, hosting as well as instructing, and ever continuing with the creative process.  Included in that creativity has been the life-changing journey of raising my twin daughters.  At very present, I am embarking on a bi-hemispheric lifestyle, splitting time between the lush and heady tropical backdrop of my island life and the cyclical seasons of my New England upbringing-- embracing the duality of home in two disparate worlds; searching for a fluency between them.

Artist Statement

I see my artwork as a window into realms interior in which the process, the very visceral act of creating is as significant as the final outcome. It is labyrinthine in its development and I am entranced by the visual traces of this journey and the slow development of a patina of color and texture, the subtle variation of simple forms, and the impact of timing, of Time.  Accrued over the course of a multi-day wood-firing or accumulated in a build up and break down of brush strokes, to me, these skin layers are reminiscent of geological formations, of the accretion of bodily experience over a lifetime, and the summary evidence of age upon our own tissue surfaces.  Process. Vessel.  Body.  Motherhood.  Journey.  Confluence of media.  Precarious balance paired with enormous bulk and heft.  The question of home, of belonging, of roots.  The weight of what it means to be alive.  These are the various recurrent themes asked and yet unanswered in my work.

Films

A Long Slow Walk through Fire

Gaya Ceramic trailer