I’ve been working in clay since I was about six years old. I started taking Saturday classes at Moore College of Art in Philadelphia when I was nine. One of my first pieces I made there was an ten inch long alligator. Something went terribly wrong in the firing and the blue-green glaze bubbled and separated all over the piece, but I loved it and I won a first prize blue ribbon at the final show for it. The accidental success of that piece was one of the things that got me hooked on clay.
| I attended The University of the Arts in Philadelphia and graduated in 1988 with a BFA in Ceramics. I remained in West Philadelphia for a few more years, where I worked out of a third floor bedroom and carted my work five blocks to get it fired. After Philadelphia I moved to the Pennsylvania Poconos and set up shop in my garage. I made sculpture and pottery as well as cast production work. During that time I produced and sponsored an annual outdoor exhibition entitled “Sculpture on the Creek”. Twenty-four plus artists displayed their works on 6 acres of land. In this period, I was able to show my work in galleries from Philadelphia to the Poconos to Massachusetts. I made production work as well as unique pieces. |
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In 1996, I left the east coast and headed to California and worked in the movie business. After spending a year in Los Angeles, I headed back east, en route to the Berkshires, Massachusetts. Along the way, I stopped off in Taos, New Mexico to help my friends' Abby Salsbury and Dean Pulver build a house. That was back in January of 1998 and I’m still in Taos...and I love it. Since then, I’ve bought land, built a straw-bale house and finally built my dream studio.
My work commingles human and animal characteristics. I am very influenced by the Spanish artist, Antonio Gaudi and by gothic architecture. Many of my pieces are human character studies, manifested in imp-like creatures. In my more abstract work, I am influenced by nature and the organic form in general.
