Biography
My art training began at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts children’s art classes where my favourite times there was modeling clay. Later, in architecture school at McGill, I especially loved the life drawing and sketching schools. I returned to working with clay at the Mount Royal Pottery Studio during the early years of family life, to give myself that undeniable pleasure of self-expression. There I learned wheel-throwing, but found I was drawn most to hand building. Upon moving to Ottawa in the early 1990’s, I have continued to explore this art form, taking workshops with Leta Cormier, Michael Sheba, Les Manning, Jim Thomson and others while working out of my own studio. I am a member of the National Capital Network of Sculpture and a long standing member of of the Ottawa Guild of Potters – previously Guild newsletter editor, communications and promotions chair and a coordinator of the Great Bowl of Fire charity fundraiser and now workshop coordinator.
Artist Statement
I try to capture the spontaneous gesture and expression of animals and people in my sculpture. Raku firing and other finish techniques help to give ceramic figures a defining attitude. You may recognize the works as metaphors for human concerns. Details help to tell their story – the angle of the head, the curl of the lip, the expression of the eyes all feed my imagination.