What I like about ceramics is the creating. Taking a piece of clay and shaping it and designing it, into something beautiful that I can use. I started out hand building and then moved to the wheel and found a place where I could focus despite the chaos around me. My favorite part is when my pieces come out of the kiln–seeing the end result of a piece I’ve worked hard on. I am calm when I’m working with clay. This series of bowls was created for “Empty Bowls” as a community service project.

These pieces all incorporate a glaze titled “Tide Pool”. This glaze breaks beautifully over fluctuating surfaces. These bowls have a swollen appearance with a recess which represents our extremely fluctuating tide changes. These bowls also represent my growth on the pottery wheel from basic cylinder shapes to representational forms. My technique has developed and these pieces show thin walls, slightly choked opening and delicate foot.

The reason I made this piece was in appreciation of the historic Greek process—all by hand. This is the main reason I chose to hand build by rolling out clay slabs. At first it was challenging to get the shape I wanted for this piece. I had to keep pulling and hitting the clay until it was where I wanted. That was only for the body, the cone shape at the top was it’s own slab piece that I had to shape as well. One of the bigger challenges was the waiting for the clay to get to the hardness I needed. The reason I chose to paint Poseidon, the god of the ocean, is for my brother who has always been drawn to the ocean. Ares is for my oldest brother. Ares the god of war, always fighting just like my brother attacking his problems head on. Finally, Atlas is for my father. Atlas the Titan is known for holding the heavens upon his shoulders. My father has held my family on his shoulders since the day my brothers and I were born.