Why ceramic art? I’ve been drawing for as long as I can remember. I still love to draw, but I wanted to bring my artwork into the third dimension… I also really like the idea that something beautiful can be functional. Why functionality? Being able to create something unique that functions as a common object of everyday life, like a coffee cup, makes me excited because it plays a personal role in someone’s life. The intimacy that a cup automatically receives from the user leaps bounds that humans never could so quickly– to touch the lips immediately. I am trying to make work that is enjoyable to use and happy to look at. Why decoration? Decoration transforms a pot from just a nice functional pot into a functional canvas. I am very interested in treating the surface of the pot as a canvas. It’s a real challenge in ceramics to figure out how to get the surface you want– I still haven’t figured it out yet. For me, decoration ties my drawings to my pots in a direct and satisfying way.