 I grew up outside of Charlotte, North Carolina. As a child, I spent most weekends and summers at my grandparents’ house helping my grandfather around the house or in the garden. This appreciation of working with my hands was apparent when I took my first ceramics class in high school and was immediately drawn to the process of working on the wheel.
After stumbling though a few semesters of college, I eventually ended up in the Art program at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. Although I began with the intention of becoming a graphic designer, my love of clay took over when I had my first wheel class. I completed my degree in 2005 focusing in Ceramics, but making mostly handbuilt sculpture. After college, I went to work in a bank and purchased a wheel and small electric kiln so that I could continue to make pots from home. In 2008, my husband started a new job which moved us to Valdese, NC. At that point, I decided to focus on making pots and began taking pottery classes at Western Piedmont Community College. This put me back into a studio working with other potters and gave me the opportunity to explore glazes and firing methods that I could not do at home. In the Spring of 2009, I took a position with the Hickory Museum of Art as their Membership Coordinator and have since become involved in teaching children’s art and clay classes at the Museum. |