I make tabletop and wall pieces in porcelain or stoneware using slab-built techniques, with an eye on developing shapes and contours that best provide the surface for my hand drawn imagery. These forms thus become a canvas for depicting scenes that combine my interests in travel, art history and the natural world.
The vases, vessels and wall pieces I make today evolved naturally over time from a strong foundation producing utilitarian pottery, as well as having an ongoing practice of creating works on paper with a variety of drawing techniques. These once separate pursuits have been the basis of my ceramic work, and combined, produce for me the greatest satisfaction: merging the painted surface to three-dimensional form.
Artist Bio
Before making Chicago my home, I resided in southwest Wisconsin where my dedication to ceramics began as a studio potter in the town of Mineral Point. I also spent four inspirational summers as an apprentice in the acting company at American Players Theater in nearby Spring Green. For a number of years, I served as the Program Coordinator of the Art in Public Places program, as well as the Visual Arts Coordinator for the Wisconsin Arts Board in Madison.
Eventually relocating to Chicago, I quickly became a part of local ceramics scene as a resident ceramic artist at Chicago’s Lill Street Art Center where I also held various directorial positions spanning from community outreach to educational programming for adults and children to gallery exhibitions and events. As director of Lill Street’s gallery, I curated dozens of group and solo exhibitions involving ceramic artists of local and national prominence. From there, I worked in the Department of Museum Education at the Art Institute of Chicago, where I participated in docent training as well as teaching sketch classes during special exhibitions.
In 2009, I created a six-panel ceramic mural “In the Swim,” commissioned by the Public Art Program, City of Chicago, now installed and on view at the Hayes Park Natatorium in the Ashburn-Wrightwood community.
Since 2006, my studio has been in the heart of the Ravenswood Corridor in Chicago. My life is shared with husband and artist, Ed Hinkley, who creates oil paintings and works on paper.