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A child of medical missionaries to Japan, I spent eighteen years of my life there. After college in the United States, I returned to Japan to work as an apprentice in pottery for four years. In the rigorous discipline of a traditional Japanese apprenticeship, working with clay became a way of life.
During that time I was required to
make thousands of cups, never firing
one. Submission to the demands of
this process tought me the technical
skills, a disciplined concentration,
and an understanding of and respect
for the clay. It also taught me that my
experience while working with clay is
just as important as the finished piece.
Whether it is a pot or a sculpture,
ceramic or bronze, the piece will
reflect the spirit in which it was made.
I now work in Kent, Connecticut, where
I built a 28-foot-long Japanese style
anagama wood-firing kiln. A year of my
work is fired at once, in an intense
24-hour-a-day, week-long firing. The
resulting warm rich colors and rugged
texture are gifts of heat and ash to the
clay, bringing life to the unglazed forms.
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