My life and work are an ongoing investigation into the nature and qualities of ceramic and related materials. I see myself as collector, researcher, educator and artist. Each area overlaps the other. My growing collection influences how and what I make. My research into antiques gives them context which in turn helps me contextualize my work. My glaze research has come to influence my forms. I teach so that I can pass on what I have learned. Ceramics is the main focus of my life.
I have had the privilege of being able to work as a full time ceramic artist for most of my adult years. My love for ceramics had already taken hold by age ten. By the time I was a teenager I was working in a neighbourhood ceramic studio pouring moulds after school to make money to pay for my Saturday morning classes. I started wheel throwing and hand building when I was nineteen. When I was twenty eight, I made the decision to do ceramics full time. I did a couple residencies at the Banff Centre in late 1980’s where I met the ceramic artist Adrian Saxe. In 1990, I moved to Los Angeles to do my MFA in Ceramics at UCLA where I was able to work with Saxe and other influential ceramic artists. Many of my mould making skills were acquired at this time. In 1995, I returned to Winnipeg where I have worked as a ceramic studio artist and part time university instructor in ceramics and mould making. In 1999, I rejoined the Stoneware Gallery, a cooperative gallery for ceramics in Winnipeg where I had also been a member and shown work in the 1980’s. I show my work at the Stoneware Gallery presently.
I am still that kid who loved ceramics back in grade school. I want to share some of that love here through images and discussion of my work, collection and the different processes and techniques I use in the studio. New material will be uploaded to at least one area of the site every week. So visit regularly.