I have been on the most amazing personal journey which has led me quite happily to the place I am now. I received a Bachelor’s degree in Art Education from Southern Illinois University Edwardsville in the United States.  I had the most fortunate experience at University, I found myself not only involved in an excellent art education program but also discovered that in this tiny farm town University was one of the most highly regarded art programs in the United States, specifically the ceramics program. It was at SIUE that I learned about and fell in love with the process and effects of atmospheric firing.  I traveled to Mexico and studied hand building and firing techniques with Mixtec potters. On firing days they brought wood and supplies down out of the mountains on the backs of their burros. We would start a fire in the morning inside a ring of pots and we would the spend the entire day gently rolling our pots towards the fire until they were completely engulfed in the flame of the fire.

In the following years I taught visual art to students ranging in ages from 4 to 84.  I taught in the US public and private school systems, a non-for profit organization teaching inner-city youth, and at a pottery studio.

In the spring of 2009 I moved to Northern Ireland and set up a small studio in the country where I could begin make my work and teach. Shortly after dropping my bags in the front door, I went off to Italy to study soda firing techniques  at La Meridiana Ceramica where I revisited my passion for atmospheric firing. You can find me now as part of the artist’s collective that is The Priory Cottages Art Craft and Design Studios,  at Benburb Priory in the heart of Benburb.