I was taught to coax that small ball of mud into the first shape; the dog dish.  The flower pot and mug followed.  I shaped hundreds of thousands of those mugs for the factory.  I've traveled the Midwest United States, working for, and learning from, the older regional Studio Art Potters.  Beautiful, curvy, lady vases.  Some with big heads.  Dark angels and black Marys.  Swimsuit models.  Navigational aids.  Bowls, Bowls. Bowls.  Big bottles, and little bottles, and all the bottles in between.  More mugs. Plates and platters.  Vases and jars, and even more mugs.  I work mostly on my own pots now.

    I throw crisp, traditional, functional forms.  My decoration is applied when the pots are leather hard, by hand carving lines and textures, and painting with slip clay, tinted with metal oxides.  The pots are bisque fired, glazed, and fired a second time to stoneware temperature.

    I enjoy the message of the decoration most.  On a small cup or bowl, the message must be short and to the point.  A simple band, or some little squares.  A large vase might require the story of creation.  With a strong math background, many of my decorations tend to be very geometric.  I feel the human image to be the most interesting and satisfying to use as the basis for my compositions.  These images help to continue to ask, "who are we?"