The human face has fascinated me from early childhood and in the 8th grade I began drawing and painting faces. In university I took my first ceramics class and fell in love with the process of shaping a 3-dimensional work. The first piece I made was a large head. Now, all these years later I still love the challenges of clay sculpture. When I begin a new piece this creative process starts with the face. Will it be a child or an adult? Will it be male or female? Will it be happy for instance? How happy? Lots of teeth or just a soft smile? Then I ask what kind of animal would add depth and interest to the piece? For the Old Mermaid it will be a large fish. For the little boy an owl. The story has to unfold. I hope to convey to others the depth and complexity of the human condition as I see it.

My work changes greatly during the construction process, which is exciting to me. I try not to fight the influence and voice of the clay as it is interesting and surprising to see how the formal constraints of clay affect and influence the process. For example, some of the work which had seemed female in the beginning can become male and vice versa. And then, when painted, may again be female in some cases.

Recently I have begun using a cone 06 low-fire whiteware clay. I still use cone 5 high fire clay occasionally. Each sculpture is hand-built. I construct the works using both slabs and coils and finish the surface primarily with underglazes and infrequently glazes. If needed I fire as many as three times.