My love of creation began while painting with my grandma, watching my grandfathers construct and fix objects, and learning homecrafts from my mother. Art became a positive way for me to direct my energy, providing a purposeful path of study and way of life. My favorite places to be as a child were in the library sketching animals from the encyclopedia, on my bike exploring, art & shop classes, or in my room glue bits to paper. 

 

Not finding much joy in washing dishes at a nursing home, I studied art, sculpture and museum/gallery practices at the University of Wisconsin Green Bay (1997-2002). It was there that I initially rejected ceramics as a medium (everything kept cracking and exploding!) instead focusing on sculpture. The college environment at UWGB encouraged material experimentation, so there I learned to weld & forge, woodwork, carve plaster, dumpster dive, and create installations.

 

After college, not having access to a conventional sculpture studio led me to take the material explorations more seriously, finding inspiration on travels and all around me. Living and working in Chicago, IL (2006-22) developed my skills as a sculptor, spending years creating tedious temporary artworks out of whatever was around:  candy, seaweed, string, clock hands, flower petals, fireflies and canned food. During this period, I worked as a materials librarian and studio administrator in the commercial architecture & design world. This gave me first-hand experience seeing how meaningful design shapes our domestic and built worlds.

 

Community groups like the Chicago Art Department,  AnySquared Projects, and Hairpin Art Center heavily supported my creative endeavors in Chicago through inclusion in many exhibitions, shared studio space, and space for installations. I’m grateful for their support of my wackiest and even most controversial ideas. 

 

In 2019, an art residency encouraged me to find a path to create multiples to sell, shifting my focus to making more permanent objects. At LillStreet Art Center (2019-2022), ceramics came back into my life through slip cast mold making, snowballing into me wanting to know everything about sculpting, glazing and firing clay. With patience that came from consistent art practice and age, I’ve fallen in love with the craft of clay, its global traditions, many tools, and the easy going, humble attitude of the pottery community. 

 

Currently making art in Cleveland, Ohio, I’m still adjusting to not living near Lake Michigan, while getting to know Lake Erie and NE Ohio more intimately. Geologically, historically, artistically, and ecologically, it is an interesting region that is influencing my current body of art (Feats of Unlearning) that focuses on interconnection, migration, transformation and ecology.

 

When I’m not sculpting in my home studio, you can find me biking & hiking the Cleveland Metropark trails, researching at local libraries, being a teaching artist, selling neti pots, and observing how & where I can be useful in my new community.

 

Education: 

(1997-02) B.A. Art, Sculpture and Museum/gallery practices at University of Wisconsin in Green Bay, WI, USA

(2019-2022) Ceramics  at LillStreet Art Center in Chicago, IL, USA 

 

Artist residencies: 

Chicago Art Department (2010 -12), Grace Church Logan Square, Chicago (2014), The Ketchikan Arts & Humanities Council, Alaska (2018),  CORE at Chicago Art Department (2018-19), WildAcres Retreat (2022)