I had the good fortune of spending thirteen years in Japan, where I started and pursued my study of ceramics. Every year I return to exhibit and sell my work and renew my connection to the Japanese aesthetic. From 1975 to 1977, I did a two-year apprenticeship with master potter, Yasuteru Miura in Kyoto, helping him to dig clay, prepare his glazes and fire his wood fired kiln. At the end of my apprenticeship, I had the honor of exhibiting my work with his at an exhibition at the Yamaki Gallery in Osaka in 1977. Soon afterwards, I left Japan and traveled throughout Southeast Asia researching and observing local pottery traditions in Thailand, Nepal, and India. In 1978, I returned to the United States to study ceramics at the University of Colorado with Betty Woodman and Tom Potter. The next year, I built my own kiln and established a workshop in Boulder, where I produced a range of Asian inspired ceramics. In l981, I had the opportunity to return to Japan and work with another master, Haruo Shimada, who routinely threw pots taller than I (6’3”). For the next year I was in Shimane, a prefecture along the Japan Sea, rich with a folk pottery tradition from its contact with Korea. At the end of that very challenging year, I moved to Tanba, a mountainous region north of Osaka with a history of pottery making stretching back eight hundred years. Here I built a wood-fired kiln, became part of that tradition and exhibited my work at the top venues throughout Japan for the next eleven years. In the spring l993, I returned to the United States to continue my work at my studio in Boulder, Colorado.

I started casting some of my ceramic vessels in bronze about four years ago. This was a new development, but one that evolved naturally from years of being influenced by Asian art and aesthetics. My vessels are a reflection of my years living in Japan, the inspiration and influences I experienced from the Eastern cultures all those years, and my teachers in this country, including Betty Woodman at the University of Colorado. My vessels are intended to open a door to the past and reflect the sacred use bronzes had in ancient China, where bronze vessels were used as a means to contact ancestors for guidance and to channel prayers to the divine. While I lived in Japan, I exhibited and sold my work at one man shows throughout Japan, including the most exclusive venues in Tokyo, Yokohama, Nagoya, Kyoto, and Osaka.