Crimson Laurel Gallery

As a child my mother would sit with me and draw scenes of our farm and its surroundings. The pictures would depict the house, the barns, farm animals, the fish pond and the apple orchard, all drawn with a ball point pen on ruled white paper.

In middle school my friends and I would draw battles taking place between monsters, robots and humans in heavily armed planes and tanks. However, somewhere along the line I stopped drawing for fun and then all together.

I started drawing again in 2006 and drew in my journal every day. It was only natural that the drawings eventually found their way onto my pots. This happened in 2008 and in the course of 3 months everything changed; I went from a decade of making undecorated salt glazed pottery to decorated, low fired earthenware.

The drawings are inspired by my life and surroundings in rural North Carolina, as well as my interest in technology and the internet. The work often invokes a chuckle and a smile from the viewer. Many people connect with a wash line or a favorite animal drawn on a pot and tell me their stories.

All the pots are thrown from soft, red clay on a slow treadle wheel. When leather hard I coat the clay in white slip and later incise drawings on the surface. Sometimes there are little ‘surprise’ images inside a lid or on the bottoms of pots.

I increasingly find things to inspire me, often objects or scenarios that I may have overlooked in everyday passing. I feel I have a wellspring of information to draw from as I continue to pot and draw here in the county. I am delighted to know that the pots I create and the images that adorn them are bringing joy others.