Artist Statement
Drawing on Lake Michigan as a source, I work to incorporate what is reflected in its water, nature, and lakeshore: power and change. My artwork explores perspective of emotions, from beauty and love to deep pain and isolation. Using elements found at the beach I incorporate physical items into my work along with the environment at the lake front.
The emphasis of this body of work is using Milwaukee wild clay. Glacial sheets deposited a unique material known as Lacustrine clay that was later used to make the Cream City bricks Milwaukee is famous for. After collecting and cleaning this same wild clay deposit I experimented with different firing temperatures that changed the color of the clay.
Inspired by the labor-intensive hand press mold technique of the Cream city brick making, I created a series of press mold orchid jewelry with the clay. Each set of necklaces is fired at different temperatures that give the clay a unique color.
For my large sculptural piece, I fuse an abstract human figure with nature and wild clay. The foundation of this ceramic sculpture is stoneware clay covered in white underglaze. Under the resin dipped flowers wild clay was applied as a glaze and fired at a higher temperature to give it a deep, yellow color.
