Bear Hands Art Factory, New Bern, NC
Pottery is a spiritual experience for me. I think of how God took clay and formed Adam, and how God is pictured as the Potter in the Bible. The trials we go through are His strong hands shaping us, the opening up of the clay on the wheel is Him removing ourselves from the center of our lives and hollowing us out so that we can be expanded and filled and used for His purposes. To be a potter is to make useful functional, beautiful things that are an intimate part of people's lives. When people take home my work it creates a connection. When I see them again, their lives may be different, but they still have my work in their homes and they tell me about where it is and how they use it. I never grow tired of making my work better and more meaningful and then meeting the people who will drink their coffee from my mugs or put their meals into my bowls.
