I have lost the life force that I am trying to render. As my work changes or develops it is not about novelty for its own sake but about avoiding stagnation. My experiments in imaginatively interpreting the landscape challenge my habitual ways of looking and creating. I must have faith that a circular process in which intuitive making alternates with critical judging avoids digging a circular rut, but spirals into new insights. Our culture often describes things in too simplistic terms there is the romantic myth of the maverick artist whose productivity results from being irresponsible and crazed.
Actual paths are far more complex, a combination of many possibilities.
I aim for pottery that resonates and expresses itself through use by creating new metaphors that combine Cezanne s sense of abstracting from Nature, the Japanese Teamen s sense of ceramic associations, and the inspiration of the Chinese poet. I continue to refine my work so it can be felt as landscape, perhaps capturing the regenerative forces of spring or the power of dried grass to withstand the fierce elements of winter.