My primary motivation for making things is that in genetics, most of the work that I do is with bacteria or small volumes of DNA- things too small in scale to hold. I need to be able to feel the way that something I touch is molded, to be able to watch the results of my actions and view what I am changing in real time. Being able to see things that I have done as physical entities, as opposed to as represented by measurements too small to properly grasp helps to keep me grounded. Sometimes touching mud is all a person needs.

My two earliest groups of memories are of my father bartending and of the wood kiln. There’s something about a dusty pinball machine that feels like home, but even stronger is my relationship with the smell of wet clay. This comfort, coupled with my need to make something which I can physically touch, led me to ceramics as a natural destination.

Although most of my work is functional, I have spent recent months branching into decorative and sculptural elements. While my functional pieces highlight the tenderness I feel for my Appalachian background by focusing on foragable foods and natural colors, my more decorative work focuses on the intersection of queerness and faith.

I was raised with the influences of Catholicism, and though I no longer practice I am still drawn to ritual and sacrament. I view my relationship with gender, love, and sex through a lens shaped by Milton’s interpretation of the fall of man, and the divine relationship between the martyr and their God. Saying that sounds pretentious, so I find other ways to communicate it.