For the past several years the focus of my work in ceramics has been abstracting landscapes in low fire terra cotta clay.  The brilliant range of ceramic pigments at this temperature in thick, juicy slips and engobes continues to hold my interest.

The images I deal with in the plate form  are fragmented and abstract. The seascape becomes condensed as I try to express a very large image concept in the relatively small space of the pottery form.  I am committed to expressing the visual energy that I see in nature at a particular time of day.

The impact of the material clay on my ideas is important because of its plastic and tactile qualities.  It helps me pull out the physical and gestural possibilities in my work.  To get the full implications of gesture there is a need for three-dimensionality. The energy expressed in the flow of water in nature is an example of gesture.  To contain this idea of the landscape in the bowl or vase requires an understanding of gesture.  Personally it seems irrelevant to me to pursue the gestural with paint on canvas.  For me the canvas is rigid and confining.  I am not interested in creating an illusion of space.  The clay form for me is a gesture, which carries color of the thickly applied slips.  This is the means of my expression.