The most important part of my work is the medium, I feel passionate about clay itself, there is something about taking a lump of mud and forming it into an object that fills a primal urge for me. The intimate and personal nature of ceramic objects stands out against other mediums. The next step is process, I make stamps, rolling pins, and carve out molds from clay that I fire and use for all the texture in my work, Using tools I have created satisfies my need for originality for each piece. Clay as the medium from nature lends itself so perfectly to depictions of nature. My family and I love to camp and hike, there is nothing more peaceful than being in the woods. But even in the city I love staring at the shapes of tree branches, watching flocks of birds swoop across the sky, collecting interesting seed pods, growing gourds and sunflowers in my yard, I guess I just take all the forms from nature that I find interesting and express them through my clay work. Even deeper though, I hope that a message of appreciation and stewardship of nature is conveyed, if we decimate all the wild areas then we will have no place to retreat when we need some peace.