Artist Statement
I collect the local glacial clay from Cook Inlet next to Anchorage Alaska and process it into a all around kick-butt tile clay body. Alaska had a native ceramics tradition but the last hand builder stopped making pots around 1880. I feel like I'm restarting the tradition which dates back about 5 000 years in my mother's area of Northwest Alaska. I incorporate traditional native x-ray designs onto some of the tiles other tiles are naturalistic and some are leaf impressions with crystaline glazes. I also love the arts and crafts movement and put as much into the tile making as I can. I make the clay I mix my own glazes. I make the collagraph plates and engrave and etch the copper plates that are used in many of the tiles which entail rolling the clay slab along with the inked plate through and old fashion etching press. And other tiles are made with plaster molds that I make also. I left my engineering cubicle job because I couldn't get up in the mornings but now I can.
Media
Booth Numbers
Millennium Art Festival: 15
Chicago Botanic Garden Art Festival: 24