functional & sculptural majolica pottery,
monotypes, collage

I started making pots in high school. Art class was my favorite period, yet despite that I enrolled to study English, French and German literature when I enrolled at the University of Michigan in 1961. Still I could not stay away from the clay. During my 8 years at the university, I attended ceramic classes there just about every semester. During this time I was privileged to be present during the visits of Shoji Hamada, Bernard Leach and Michael Cardew to the University of Michigan.

During an exploratory trip to New Mexico in 1968, my family and I found ourselves in love with Santa Fe and surrounding area. We bought land and house in Dixon, a small rural community in the foothills of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains, near Taos. Establishing a lifestyle on that small parcel, bordering a river was our goal.

I built a catenary arch kiln out of hard brick, as instructed in the Daniel Rhodes Kill!s book and started making pots on a hand made kickwheel in an adobe shed adjacent to our house. Those first firings were exciting. I used to dream of walking around inside the red-hot kiln among the pots. designs It was a dream coming true. In the early seventies I apprenticed with a neighboring potter who was well established and whose focus was on-glaze decoration. This and many workshops over the next 20 years with master potters such as John Glick, Rudy Autio, Ron Meyers, Andrea Gill, Woody Hughes and others, helped me on the road of establishing my own style.

In the early eighties I built pottery studio on our land and seriously began marketing my work. Over those early years I moved from stoneware to porcelain and finally to red earthenware, most always decorating on the glaze with cobalt, iron and various stains. My love of European folk ceramics led me to settle on the technique of majolica, which I have pursued for the past 18 years or so.

The painterly approach, the richness of color, the freedom to express movement and opportunity to be spontaneous is what initially attracted me to this method. My work has remained for the most part functional. Even when I explore sculptural elements, I mostly stay in the format of the vessel. Working with elements that form a pattern such as the fish, or fruit shapes,that can play with the form of the pot has been what I like to do. I hope that my work brings pleasure to the touch as well as stimulates the eye toward playfulness and whimsy.

Phone: 505/579-4573

E-mail: nausika@cybermesa.com