Clay Spirits - 100 piece celebration, 2007-2011: I work in clay by responding to the spirit and form inherent in each piece of clay. I rarely bring an idea of a figure to the clay, but seek in the clay mass the spirit of the figure. While working I balance on the precarious edge of leaving untouched what I see in the clay and my desire to change the clay, to ‘correct’ the position, musculature, or surface. Which mark do I leave as an action of the clay spirit and which do I remove because it distracts from the form or beauty?

These spirits formed in clay from emptiness, from stillness, a place before words. They seem to me to often be pre- or proto-human, and pre-sexual. Sometimes totemic animal spirited humans. Some figures are inspired by beach rock or pear forms. Since I respond directly to the figure I see in the clay, I am as surprised by the variety of figures as the viewer.

Claylings: 2011 - ? My most recent puzzle has been to see how far I can simplify the clay forms, limit the limbs and details, while maintaining the spirit’s full expression.

Bronze Spirits, 2003 - ?: These tumbling bronze forms have been my longest running ‘series’, perhaps because it is such a long time between beginning a piece and finally seeing it cast into bronze. Each bronze is a unique cast from a figure worked in wax without a model. They are interactive, enticing the viewer to move them. Their color, texture, movement and meaning, may be altered by the viewer if they are hung or turned on their base, if they are spun or paired. Viewers creatively change these figures in more ways than I can think up.

Studies: Honored to have studied with Mark Oxman at The American University and Magdalene Odundo at The Haystack School, as well as continuous studies from Maine to Bali.

Teaching: Many venues from pre-school through college and continuing education. Thoroughly enjoying my current position in a public elementary school in Maine.

Exhibitions: Nationally for over 25 years, including galleries, solo and juried group exhibitions.

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