It was never difficult for me to imagine the artifacts of nature as retaining life, even when they are no longer alive. I will never forget the antiques and folk art my mother collected, and how they mystified and thrilled me. Old dolls, marionettes and puppets continue to fascinate me with their enigmatic spirits and hidden past lives. As an artist I have always wanted to create unusual objects that could refer to other realities, and which would possess a mysterious logic of existence.

My first ceramic figure began as a kind of re-creation of an antique doll. Thinking of the story of Icarus, I experimented with the addition of wings to subsequent figures, which gave them a sense of potential and energy. In fact, all my figures have become explorations of spirit which exists between the make-believe and the real. I locate characters in this in-between place by drawing on my imagination, memory, and experience of nature and culture. As I carve, texture and mark the clay, a narrative identity emerges. Found objects, both natural and man-made inform this identity as well. The narrative implications of the work seem to originate as much with the viewer as with myself. I see this viewer participation as the final step in the animation of the figures.

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