Print Artist's Summary

Artist's Statement

White porcelain bowl,
5½" x 4",
2002
(photo: King Anderson)

I began making pottery professionally over 20 years ago, when I was a young mother living in Roberts Creek, BC. I exhibited my work in craft fairs and retail outlets up and down the coast and on Vancouver Island. In the late 1980s I moved to the city, regretfully putting my life as a craftsperson on hold for several years while studying at UBC. In 1995 my husband and I bought an artist's live/work studio, a dream come true for both of us (he also is a visual artist). I am now able to practise my craft again, and joyfully get muddy as often as possible.

Porcelain bowl,
chrome-tin red glazed interior,
5" x 3",
2002
(photo: King Anderson)

I make one-of-a-kind pieces, usually bowls. Most of them are thrown on the wheel and later altered by means of cut-outs, slip-trailing and other textural modifications. These textural "interruptions" augment and punctuate the basic bowl form. They also contain intentional references to what a pottery bowl is about - the food it can hold (e.g. lentils and spaghetti!) or the substances it is made of (basically, rocks and organic material).

Porcelain bowl,
turquoise glazed interior,
4" x 3",
2002
(photo: King Anderson)

I strive to combine the following elements in my work:
- simplicity and elegance of form;
- a line the eye is pleased to follow;
- a shape that feels good to hold;
- glazing that "fits" the pot, aesthetically as well as physically.
Interaction between form and light is the final and most important element. When everything works, the piece has a certain luminosity or "glow". It could hold light - or lentils, as required!