Biography

In 2001 I began life as an artist after a 16-year corporate career. I am fortunate to make my living sharing my visions in a medium to which I feel deeply connected. I currently focus on realism with an emphasis on the design and texture of one-of-a-kind, hand-carved ceramic trompe l’oeil sculptures transformed into birch trees, charred wood and weathered logs. I have also created sculptures of ceramic hyper-realism to mimic pine and hardwoods.

I hold a BA from Ithaca College. My primary applied art training came in the form of two artist residencies studying with Ah Leon and four clay masters in Taiwan in 2004 and 2006. Both were funded in part by New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA) grants.

Works have been contributed to over 130 exhibitions. Internationally recognized, they have been exhibited, awarded and collected on five continents. Two dozen works are included in public collections including among others The Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Smithsonian American Art Museum, the Carnegie Museum of Art, and the Mint Museum.

Sculptures have been represented at some of the world’s top art and design fairs including Frieze NY, TEFAF Maastricht, Design Miami, Art Basel, The Salon: Art + Design (NY), Masterpiece London, and SOFA Chicago.

In 2013 I had my first catalogued solo exhibition at Jason Jacques Gallery in Manhattan. The Appleton Museum of Art hosted my first solo museum exhibition in 2015. And in 2017, Jason Jacques Gallery was the first ceramics gallery ever invited to the prestigious Frieze, NY fine art fair where they presented a solo exhibition of my work.

Awards include 11 top prizes. The most notable honor was becoming the James Renwick Alliance's 2016 Distinguished Artist in Ceramics at the Smithsonian American Art Museum.

Artworks have appeared in over two dozen American art periodicals as well as in Taiwanese and Chinese art magazines. Works are also included in several books. A February 2018 solo show at Jason Jacques Gallery was recommended in the New York Times Arts Section as one of the top 12 exhibitions to see in New York City.

I have presented and lectured throughout the USA, in Canada and Taiwan, including at the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Appleton Museum of Art, Everson Museum of Art, Mint Museum, Taipei Yingge Ceramics Museum, and Pratt MWP Art Institute, among others. In 2008 I served as a guest curator for a ceramics exhibition at the Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art at Cornell University.

My influences include the historic Yixing teapots of the 1600s, Japanese wabi sabi philosophy, Asian calligraphy and paintings, L. C. Tiffany glass windows, and of course birch trees - the angels of the forest.

In 2021 I was an artist in residence at Starworks Center for Creative Enterprise in North Carolina. While there I worked in both the ceramics studio and glass hot shop. Having found a new medium to explore, I have begun making cast and pate de verre glass objects as a complement to my works in clay.