Lotus

"Currently I am using Laguna Cone 5 B-Mix, but I’ve got a couple other clays hanging around the studio because I’ve got some sculptural/alterative firing ideas in the works."

Primary forming method?

"I come up with my idea first and then decide what will be the best fit to fabricate my piece/installation."

Primary firing temperature?

"Mid-fire but sometimes accents of palladium or gold luster cone 018."

Favorite surface treatment?

"I like activated surfaces, whether it be from sprig molds, embossed linoleum, or layered glazes interacting with each other."

How/Where do you market and sell your artwork?

"Most of my work is sold through Art Festivals around Texas, such as Texas Clay Festival, Bayou City Arts Festival, Rockport Arts Festival, and Fiesta Arts Fair in San Antonio. I also have a couple Texas places that currently sell my work: The Barn Pottery in Gruene, and Brieger Pottery in Blanco. I enjoy meeting other ceramic artists throughout the state and enlarging my clay family."

"I’m an anxious person who physically struggles with my Hashimoto’s Disease. I started working in clay at the age of 19; as a young artist I found creativity and the passion of clay through the actual materiality and process. Wedging, coiling, throwing, texturing…. I fell in love with clay giving me the ability to achieve that “flow state” of being in the present moment instead of being anxious about the past or especially the uncontrollable future. Interest in the process and methods of clay is what started it all, but decades later, truly tapping into the endless variables and repetition of process is what drives my passion for over 26 years. Being in that “flow state” allows me to lose track of my self, my anxious thoughts, and time itself slips away. I can be fully absorbed and focus in on that present moment, just that one piece or series of works in front of me; one by one, everything else dissolves away. New ideas and creativity keeps me re-connecting to the flow, tapping into that universal awareness to gain elevated happiness."       

Did you come to ceramics from a different career?      

"No, I was lucky enough to have found ceramics in undergrad and followed a path to earning a Masters of Fine Arts in 2004. Over the years, I’ve taught at 4 local community colleges and the University of Houston, but now my husband and I own Third Coast Clay."

How have you have taken your experience as a well-established maker in the field and passed that knowledge along to your other artists?

"At Third Coast Clay I am able to teach my passion and create a supportive environment to help others tap into that same flow state that is so important to my own personal practice. My vision for Third Coast Clay is not just for me to be teaching but to allow other local artists to share their knowledge and passions for the medium and be able to create a larger Houston clay community. I am just launching the monthly membership portion of the studio, for those who wish to expand their knowledge, need more time to tap into their creativity and express who they are, and be in an encouraging atmosphere."

What’s the best advice you’ve been given by a fellow maker, mentor, or teacher?

“My mentor Huey Beckham planted the seed of wanting an expansive Houston clay community when I was his undergrad student at University of Houston. He fostered that desire to not just sit alone in my studio like a hermit without interactions, but to get out into the world and make a difference. He and I would drive to HPD horse stables and shovel manure so all his students could do a communal pit fire together. Huey, a few students, and I would set up a make-shift raku kiln at a local high school, where the art teacher was a former student of his, and we would do demos for the students while their pots were being fired. Huey taught me about being a part of something larger than myself, what a clay community should be.

Fast forward to eight years ago…. Third Coast Clay was started with two students and a dream. From the small 300 sq ft space above the Ceramic Store, to a little house on Louise St owned by V Chin, I was extremely nervous about expanding Third Coast Clay into the 1,700 sq ft space we are in now. There is absolutely no way I could have done it alone. In addition to my immediate family, close friends, and clay family; master potter V Chin has been so very supportive of encouraging me on this journey, he told me “From now on don’t look back, think how to make your dream come through, and go straight for your dream. It will be down a bumpy road but you need to believe yourself, I believe you can do it.” "