Background

My interest in natural form, tone, and texture derives directly from my upbringing in the woods and and fields of rural New England. All aspects of the landscape were fascinating to me, and imprinted an aesthetic which now surfaces in my passion for “mud”. In the early 1980’s I was living in a warehouse in West Oakland, creating monotypes, drypoint etchings, and balsa wood sculptures. Aware of my need for things green, I broke the concrete outside my studio, and planted my first real garden. I very quickly realized that horticulture satisfied my original need for the natural world, and thus arose a thirty year plus career as a gardener/garden designer. It was a fully hands-on endeavor, from rock wall building, to planting, to pruning and maintenance. Five years ago, and now retired, I started to explore a long-dormant interest in sculpture, and ceramics. I had been aware for many years that clay would be a link to all my visual and tactile connections to the natural world. Clay is the mud of my country childhood, the earth of my gardening career, and the raw material of a new dimension.

Little Machu Picchu, 2017

Detail of stone retaining wall with paths and benches