From Farmer to Ceramicist: The Journey of Art & Clay

I began my life with fingers dug deep in the soil. I played in the woods around my home, made clay bowls for the faeries to eat from, and helped the farmhands grow carrots and pick peas.

Food was an integral part of daily living: we cooked farm fresh eggs and toast with homemade jam every morning for breakfast. I learned how to make sourdough bread, preserve vegetables, and cook with the seasons from a young age. Living with the pulse of nature and working the land to feed ourselves and our community laid the foundation for a framework of integral connection that has stayed with me my entire life.

While the thread of conscious living was woven firmly into my life, I knew that there was more for me than farming in life. I used the ethics of hard work and integrity that I learned on the farm when I started college at Northern Michigan University. When I took my first pottery class in the NMU School of Art and Design, I fell in love.

The clay felt natural beneath my hands, and I began crafting handmade mugs and bowls from which to enjoy all of the farm fresh food. My focus at the beginning was what I called "Functional Art" - I was interested in the intersection between fine art and everyday living.

Fast forward six years, and here I am with clay continuing to be a deep part of my life. I still love gardening, but most of my connection with earth is through pottery now. My journey has ebbed from completely functional to solely sculptural, and at the moment is settled somewhere in between. You can find my handmade mugs and bowls at my shop in Marquette, only 15 miles from the farm where my family still tends to the fields growing natural food.

I still hope my pieces become the centerpiece to family meals, home cooking, and morning tea rituals. Clay is as much a form of art as it is a way of life, integrally connected with the land that sustains us and the community that is at the heart of holistic living.

I'll always be grateful for this journey I've been able to follow, and can't wait to see where the road leads.