Born and raised in Jacksonville, Florida, I grew up with hands that had a need to tinker and explore. I first discovered clay during a gap year after high school, while living in a big, big city where I hardly knew anyone. On a small, quite street in Madrid, Spain, I took my first ceramics class and fell in love. Ever since then clay has been a safe place for me, a refuge of sorts.
After my gap year I came home to study at Florida State University, majoring in ceramics. During my undergrad I interned with potter Julie Guyot, and after graduating I went on to work for Honeycomb Studio, a small batch slip casting studio in Atlanta. Both of these opportunities greatly enriched my knowledge of clay - safe places where I learned more about the process of ceramics, got hands-on experience, and was encouraged to explore my own creativity.
In my work with clay I strive to create pieces that are playful, practical, and bring beauty into everyday moments. Play and curiosity are important ingredients to my process because they help me stay soft and open in both myself and my work. Pottery is a humble trade - the root word of humility, humus, means earth, which I find very fitting. It’s hard to make dust and dirt look glamorous, because the truth is, they aren’t!
Humilty: re-remembering that we are dust.
