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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 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.