I come from a long line of fiber artists, sewers, cross stitchers, doily makers, and quilters. A term I hear a lot in conjunction with my work is “quilt-like”. While I don’t see my work as quilts, I love the connection to my past. I create tessellations, or patterns, made from small ceramic pieces that are wired together to make larger, flexible sheets. While my material, clay, is hard and cold, verses the softness and warmth of textiles or fiber, visually it holds the same kind of weight. So many women of my past hand sewn their quilts together, and I feel a kinship to that when I hand wire my pieces. I am furthering my family legacy, but in a contemporary way.

            It is important that my forms are non-representational. I believe there is power in form, color, texture, and shape, without the distraction of recognizable imagery.  A main focus in my work is shape, how it stacks and interacts with itself and how it can be pushed past its two-dimensional ideas by manipulating the form. A trapezoid, for example, is not a thing, it is something an object can be in the form of, but the trapezoid is not the object. At what point do shapes and patterns become objects? Can they ever? And can patterned be moved and changed and still be what it was?

The use of clay is important to my work for several reasons. It is sturdy and will hopefully hold up over the years, I am very drawn to the community and process it comes with. I am also very intrigued with the concept of vitrification. Clay starts as this malleable substance that can be formed, then when fired it becomes unchangeable. The closest thing you can do to reform it is break it. Knowing that, I am interested in these vitrified pieces I have made, that I have found a way to make moveable again and becoming fabric like.