a practicing artist, educator and maker living in Manhattan Kansas where I lead the ceramics program at Kansas State University.
My experience in ceramics spans the better part of two decades and has taken my work and research to nearly a dozen countries. My formal education began at Southern Oregon University and continued on at Sierra Nevada College where I received a BFA in Ceramic Art. I completed the terminal degree in the field of studio art, an MFA, at the New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University. After graduating I spent four years as an artist and educator in Beijing China teaching ceramic design for industry at the prestigious CAFA, (Central Academy of Fine Art) City Design School.
Excerpt from my artist statement about my work , “it leverages the geological, technological and sociological materiality of clay to examine legacy, codification and decay through the plight of the individual and ubiquity of a society. Utilizing an analogue and binary mash-up, I create installations with ceramic sculpture, video media and a conceptualized version of the print process.”
While my better know work is often categorized as installation or sculpture I remains an active ceramic object maker and designer. In recent bodies of work I have using traditional large porcelain tiles as canvas for industrial and hobby craft decals and sometimes bright fluid glaze. Much of the conceptual values present in my installations and projects manifest as subtlety embedded threads in my decorative or utilitarian objects; “Utility is a capsule for concept, content and communication”.