Artist’s Statement

Starting in the 1970s with the most basic facilities and technology, I embarked with great passion on a path to establish a career and a reputation as a ceramic artist. There were long years of study and learning the various skills needed to acquire a language of my own.

I exhibited nationally as well as in my home state of Western Australia from the 1980s and onwards and my work become recognized as a leader in its field.

A major shift from the Perth Hills to the Margaret River region in 2003 has seen a change of direction. I became more focused on developing new approaches and the exploration of surfaces, primarily through the application of textured material. Being a beachcomber, I collect fragments of the detritus and degraded shells along the tideline which are then used to impress images onto a trailed clay surface. The low-profile plate forms offer a particularly good form for this approach, as do the tall elliptical vessels and Dome forms. Each tell a story of imagined fossil and skeletal like forms. These works are each completely spontaneous in their expression and therefore are totally unique, taking many hours each to create and assemble. Another inspiration has been the colors of the coastal environment, the sea and sky and light, the sunrise and the sunset and the ever-changing reflected light.

A new series developed recently, are objects I have collected and slip cast. Things like ceramic forms, rocks, seed pods and found material that are assembled and presented as small sculptures, their form altered and their context changed.

My work can be seen in my own studio, at Fremantle Arts Centre and various exhibiting galleries.