I create fantastical worlds by merging ceramics with drawing and painting. Working within a narrative where animal characters mimic humans, I create a stage for dramas that resemble historical and personal events from the past. The animals I select derive from memory, dreams, childhood, or from present encounters but all have affected my life. The horse, one of nature’s noblest creatures is the most important animal in my life and accordingly becomes the most decorated and beautiful of the animals in my work.
The worlds or dramas I create are contained by a frame that I have also constructed out of clay, though the containment is not complete, since animals protrude from the surface beyond the frame and the flat area it surrounds. That is the point where drawing, painting and sculpture merge. The background scene drawn inside the frame is static, though animal elements of it project beyond the surface and into the viewer’s space giving the sense that the scene is coming to life and forcing interaction. Although these dramas represent one or several factual events from my life, most viewers will not make this connection but instead use their imagination to come up with their own story.