I am an artist whose clay work focuses exclusively on wood firing in an anagama style kiln.  Deep and rich natural ash surfaces are my areas of research and expertise.  Because of the large element of fortuitous circumstance and accidents involved in this type of wood firing, each piece is entirely unique.  These works are fired in my kiln in Albion, Michigan, which at 1000 cubic feet is one of the largest anagama style kilns in the US.

My work is, to a large extent, a collaboration between myself and chance occurrence.  I exercise a fair degree of control with my clay in terms of form, but then fire them in a way that is only predictable to a degree.  Though not random, surfaces and even changes to the form are not predictable.  Sometimes pieces end up exactly as foreseen, but the best pieces are often unplanned.

The qualities that I search for with this process are the same as those I seek in people and the world at large: they should show transformation, be intuitive, individualistic, have clarity, and be slow to reveal themselves.