Born in Cleveland Heights, Ohio, I grew up in a community filled with artists, musicians and lots of mid-west practicality. I knew from a very young age that I wanted to create things––bridges, buildings––I wasn't sure what, but I wanted it to be useful. It wasn't until I started my studies in engineering that I realized art was my calling.
After a year at Northwestern University, I returned home to study at the Cleveland Institute of Art. The ceramics department was a natural fit. I learned both the science and sociology of making pots and was inspired by the variety of expression I saw around me. As I became more interested in communicating, I added sculpture to my repertoire and began to branch out into other materials. By the time I completed my BFA I was working on two concurrent bodies of work––sculpture for the gallery, pots for the home.
In few years later I began graduate studies at the Maryland Institute College of Art in the Mount Royal School. Open-ended and encouraging of mixed-media exploration, the Mount Royal School is where I began actively using the computer to document my mixed media installations. After two years of study I graduated and began working as a graphic designer. Passionate about the value of aesthetics in our everyday lives, it was easy to become completely engulfed in the world of design. It took me a couple of years to get out from under my desk and back to a gritty hands-on studio.
In 2002 I started teaching––design workshops at Johns Hopkins University, then graphic design courses at the University of Maryland, and now ceramics at Montgomery College. For me teaching has become an integral part of making stuff and provides inspiration for actively experimenting in the studio. While themes run through my work for years at a time, I am always looking for a new way to express them and leave it to students to get you thinking in new and exciting ways.
Post written by VWStudios
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