I am a writer and a potter. Each engages my mind and soul. In my youth I made utilitarian ware influenced by the Japanese aesthetic and my experiences at the Freer Gallery of Art in Washington, DC. After college I studied ceramics and art theory at the Cranbrook Academy of Art in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan at a time when the school was taken up with passions for minimalism and conceptual art. These were passions I did not share. After leaving Cranbrook my writing career blossomed and I was posted to Asia as a foreign correspondent. I put pottery aside for many years though I continued to examine forms and consider different styles as I moved about Asia and other spots along the globe.   After a long absence I returned to the wheel well-seasoned by those decades spent in international travel, a time when I was immersed in wars and poverty, human power and human folly. These experiences are in my work, just as they are in my life. But they do not appear in my art in any literal sense. Rather, they resonate in my conviction that life is a series of meaningful challenges; beauty is a powerful force; humor is a central component of a healthy life; and play is an essential part of making art.

  For all that I have studied injustice as a journalist and author, it is the evidence of grace that holds me now. As a potter I aim for a space of pure attention. I allow the clay and the vicissitudes of the moment to lead. Throwing is overture. The process that follows is discovery. The clay leads. The end result is mysteriously distant from the maker. I work mostly in porcelain and am presently engaged in producing a series of closed forms.