The core beliefs and values that I have about my work and life are: quality, craftsmanship, attention to detail. I'd like to think that the pots I make reflect these qualities. While I had a very traditional training, my present body of work has moved beyond that discipline into a more painterly approach to clay and glaze, less concerned with function than with visual imagery and form. As a studio potter, there is safety and comfort in the familiar, but I am always trying to find something out there beyond the place on which I have footing. Currently I am interested in vibrant color, fired in the softening atmosphere of the wood kiln. I've made the woodlands of East Texas my home for almost thirty years and my work has grown to take in my surroundings. I am continually interested in the duality of nature and the contrasts between light and dark, stillness and motion, starkness and lushness. Nature is an ever-present source of inspiration for me.