Meeting at the Watering Hole
I sojourned to the Parque Natural Sierra María in the Iberian peninsula…
an arid zone, at the eastern end of the Cordillera Subbética, struggling against the combined forces of climate change, global markets and land degradation,
to listen deeply to the land and collaborate with other artists and land materials for three weeks.
Joya Arte + Ecologia / AIR, Spain. Jan/Feb 2025
**please click on images below to enlarge
Comraiche Series
Comraiche means Sanctuary in Scottish Gaelic. This series emerged while deeply immersed in an art residency at Tidal Art Centre, 2024. The work that you see here was a response to my curiosity about allurement, as a principle that attracts and pulls us into our evolutionary flow of existence, as opposed to addiction, which evokes feelings of emptiness and pushes us forward by means of pain. My intention was to feel more into the kind of aliveness that is not matched by anything else, which comes from the experience of creating beauty that didn’t exist before in the universe, that adds to the universe, that is uniquely mine to create.
A selection of these works will be part of a group show Echoes of the Ordinary or The Quiet Between (working titles) at the Ferry Building Gallery, N. Vancouver, B.C. in April 2026.
Sanctuarium I (3 x 3 in), porcelainous clay (low fired), 2024 *NFS
Sanctuarium II (3 x 3 in), porcelainous clay (low fired), 2024 *NFS
Foraged clay (49.5140° N, 123.9059° W), terra sigillata, copper carbonate patina, pit fired 2024 *SOLD
Full Moon Song (5.5 x 5.5 x 5 in), porcelainous clay (low fired), 2024 *NFS
New Moon Song (5.5 x 6 x 5.5 in), porcelainous clay (low fired), fluid graphite, 2024 *NFS
A Beautiful Question (5 x 3 x 4; 5 x 5 x 5 in), porcelainous clay (unfired), 2024 *NFS
Cedar Series
As I spend time on the land in the Pacific Northwest experimenting with foraged clay and surface applications this new series, capturing the memory of place, begins to emerge.
These pieces, in particular, feel like they hold the memory of cedar trees, which have had great cultural and spiritual significance for thousands of years.
click on image to enlarge
"Cedar I " (5"h x 7"w x 4"d) ~ foraged clay (54.5182° N, 128.6032° W), terra sigillata, copper carbonate patina, pit fired 2024
"Cedar II " (3.5"h x 5.5"w x 4"d) ~ foraged clay (54.5182° N, 128.6032° W), terra sigillata, copper carbonate patina, pit fired 2024 *SOLD
“Cedar III” (2.5”h x 3.5”w x 4”d) - foraged clay (49.5140° N, 123.9059° W), terra sigillata, copper carbonate patina, pit fired 2024 *SOLD
Bone Series
The bone series emerged in 2022 when I began my sojourn across Canada to the ancestral territory of the Mi’kmaq people (Nova Scotia) to walk on land of my settler ancestors and visit their gravesites.
The work shown here is part of a bigger arc of conceptual work that continued to unfold at my art residency in Japan (2023).
click on photos to enlarge
Bulla (5"h x 5"w x 8"d) ~ pit fired 2024
Shelter (7.5"h x 9"w x 7"d) ~ pit fired 2024
Flow (6.5"h x 5.5"w x 5"d) ~ pit fired 2024 *SOLD
Listening with the Ears of the Heart (6"h x 7"w x 7"d) ~ Iron glaze, wood fired 2023 *SOLD
Kokoro Rising (6"h x 6"w x 6"d) ~ natural ash glaze, twice wood fired 2023
Marrow (5"h x 5"w x 6"d) copper ink, pit fired 2024
Aorta (6"h x 6"w x 6"d) ~ Shino and natural ash glaze, wood fired 2023 *SOLD
Sasama (3"h x 5"w x 14"d) ~ wood fired 2023 *NFS
Shincha (2"h x 7"w x 2"d) ~ oribe glaze, wood fired 2023
“All that Remains”
We acknowledge the support of the Canada Council for the Arts
for realizing Living in the Bone House Project at wabisavillage, Japan, 2023.
Primordial Series
The essence of nature is captured in the spontaneous dance and movement of my hands as they are in relationship with clay.
Uniquely textured surfaces and traditional firing techniques are emphasized to infuse forms with a vibrant living essence and an organic character that embodies a timeless quality moving between the primordial and the contemporary.
click on image to enlarge
Broken Open (2"h x 3.5'w x 3.5"d) ~ pit fired 2024 *SOLD
Cradle (3.5"h x 4.5"w x 4.5"d) ~ pit fired 2024 *SOLD
Shine (3"h x 4.5"w x 4.5"d) ~ pit fired 2024
Chthonic (3"h x 4"w x 4"d) ~ pit fired 2023 *SOLD
Lost at Sea (4"h x 7"w x 7"d) ~ pit fired 2023 *SOLD
Womb (4"h x 4.5"w x 7"d) ~ horsetail and cortinarius mushroom ink, pit fired 2024 *SOLD
Begging Bowl (4"h x 5"w x 5"d) ~ red iron oxide terra sigillata, pit fired 2023 *SOLD
Belly to the Earth (6"h x 8"w x 8"d) ~ pit fired 2024 *SOLD
