making art

My greatest joy is creating with my hands, and I believe that all human beings are made to make; be it with our hands, our words, our bodies, independently or interdependently. We are born to create and to engender human connection through creating. We are happier when engaging with our bodies and with the people around us.

“We are happier when engaging with our bodies and with the people around us.”

Like many sculptors and ceramicists, I love being muddy and having earth in my hands. For me, painting large-scale artworks and creating with clay are fundamentally similar because they both demand physicality. I engage my whole body - sometimes with a great effort - in order to make gestural marks with paint on a canvas, or to mould clay. Both demand movement; both are highly tactile; both can be intentional or spontaneous; responsive or proactive; gentle or violent.

“Painting and clay are fundamentally similar because they both demand physicality.”

My hope is that people can hold my art and understand the joy of using one’s body to create. Even better, that they too find their way to move, to listen, to observe, to imagine, to play, to make. Even better still, that they create stronger human  connections through the art they see and create. For example, connection to a friend over a cup of tea drunk from their handmade vessels; an internal connection to their own emotion of fear while drawing on a blank, white page; or perhaps agreeing with a stranger about the beauty of a painting. Ultimately, creating art is for engendering and exploring both internal and external connections and thereby a stronger, kinder internal and external world in which to live. 

“We are born to create and to engender human connection through creating.”