As a Ft. Lauderdale native, my creative inspirations and influences are rooted in my tropical surroundings. With an eye for composition, form and details, designs and colors of nature predominate in my artwork. An art autodidact, my first love and passion is to create something that I formed into existence. A chance pottery course whirl-winded me into a genre I’d not previously considered. Most of my designs are from scribbled sketches on post-it notes or inspired by organic shapes and textures that I translate to clay. Also gleaned from available images, they’re essentially a collaboration between material limitations and experience plus ongoing experiments, along with some happy accidents that all add to my excitement and motivation!

Basic elements of minerals, water, fire and air, clay originates from mountains uplifted, worn down by water, pulverized into microscopic granules, settling into mud flats for ceramic artists to fire up and turn back to stone! Pottery is often the only evidence remaining of entire cultures. I am amused to imagine someday my excavated works might be interpreted as worshipped artifacts! 

Love Bugs! 

My series of ceramic beetles explores the beauty and diversity of nature’s tiny creatures. My insects explore a viewer’s emotive, involuntary physiological sensation, because love them or hate them, bugs invoke a visceral, often conflicting emotional response between fascination and fear. Their alien forms and mechanical movement instinctively attracts the eye and challenges the psyche. I find joy in immortalizing these often overlooked exotica of leaf and land. Their variety knows no bounds. 

“We shall by morning, inherit the Earth…our foot is in the door” (Mushrooms, Sylvia Plath). 

Underfoot

Shoes are our daily physical contact with Mother Earth. Oft unnoticed, this eternal energy from our planet flows through our soles and souls, even as you read this. 

StepStoneArt originates from “Step” for shoes (my progenitor series), “Stone” for stoneware clay and ART! The invention of shoes has contributed to humanity’s triumph as a species. Appreciate how footwear, both fashion and practical, creates and promotes societal movements and has even changed culture itself. Entire artisan industries and fortunes have been sparked by footwear. The spirit with which people see themselves and how one adorns one’s body, projects energy. My energy translates to these creations.