Starry Night

Porcelain tiles....derived, borrowed, appropriated from my favorite art deco picture frame. 3 1/2 inches high or in diameter; fun to "edition" for upcoming sales!

"I'd like to teach the world to sing...."

This little bird is a three-note whistle.

I made it in Brian Ransom's class at the Penland School of Crafts, and last week I took it with two other instruments to the Savannah Arts Academy where the Ceramics teacher turned one of her pots into a flute with my help.
An award-winning science student in the class is making a sculpture based on a sound wave....and after my little demo, he may try to make the sculpture sing, so to speak.
Artists sing so to speak.
And when we share our knowledge, beautiful songs emerge.

Blooming in Savannah

I am in the process of moving my studio to Savannah. Reading and re-reading Feng Shui guidebooks in pursuit of perfect harmony, I am moving little bits at a time from the studio in South Carolina.


The first clay I brought with me was Helios. Just one bag of it. And in pursuit of perfect harmony....I prayerfully make a sphere and push my thumb into the center....pinching a pot. Years ago I started pinching the edges paper thin, returning any pieces that pinched off to the face of the pot as folded flowers. Blooming bowls. Hoping for transparent edges. Loving porcelain. Thinner and thinner with the water and feather-light pressure of my fingers. Little molecules of clay standing up, supporting each other in porcelain gymnastics....It seems fitting that in homecoming I also return to this favorite form.
I want to celebrate and honor blooming. And clay, breathing, earth and water. Air and fire.
See? I return home with the romanticism of the young girl I was when I left. But with clay.

Four Tiles Waterfalling

Water is Heaven to me.

When we speak of "dust to dust" I think we omit an important truth.

That we evaporate.

Some days I feel it already. Don't you?

(Each tile is 4 1/2 x 7 3/4 inches. porcelain, stamped and sprigged and carved.)

Water and Color

I had a wonderful time preparing this drawing for the recent Lowcountry Juried Art Exhibition. The method I'd worked out in grad school helps me feel at home within the boundaries of the picture plane. I enter the place as if it is a room or a clearing out of doors, then I ask myself what and who else are there.

I began with the placement of a piece of fence in the center. I cut masking tape to its dimensions and decided to place a fishing "water weight" or an anchor of sorts way underneath it, as if the fence were sending down its roots to feel for home.

The fence is derived from an old photograph of my grandmother as a child. She stands in front of a long picket fence which separates two places I imagine were familiar to her: the world in front where she smiles toward someone she loves, and the world behind the fence which may have held the safety of her home.

In this drawing, there are two rocks in the water. This is in case the anchor gets washed away and has to hold on to something. The sky is full of the arcs of ascending spirits in flight and the wave and protection of overhanging limbs.

Maybe it's about feeling grounded in a sea of change and mystery. The activity itself, layering color and shape with water and pencil, this is grounding and pleasant.

Tiny tiles

Small wearable tiles are a new obsession. I'm making little drawings and embellishing some of my stamps with a tiny dot here and there and color. My favorites so far are the black and white drawings. So like little lithographs....

EGGS made to order

I hope to make 100 this year for 100 happy people. Each egg is $35. They are slightly oversized or sometimes ostrich-sized. I love painting a child's name on an egg, especially with a birthdate or special message. I am carrying on a tradition; my mother and I spent hours every Easter with intricate embellishments....