The Short
I’m a maker who—since 2008 and against her expectations—lives and works in Salt Lake City, Utah. A few days a week I teach pottery at Petersen Art Center. I currently serve as Vice-President of CLAY ARTS UTAH. My work makes manifest an internal dialogue with the material, archetypes from folktales, fairytales, and the dystopian present. Although I mourn the state of things, I find no reason not to have a laugh and aim to emphasize beauty wherever possible. I’m in an investigative phase, navigating the extremes of firing temperature. At the home studio it is earthenware and sigillata. At Petersen it is stoneware, porcelain, and reduction firing.
When I’m not potting, you’ll find me reading, writing (here and here), making stuff, or gardening around town or at the cottage I share with my beloved Randin Graves and Misha the cat. Everyone at the cottage misses Yuri the Cat who passed away January 2025.
The Long
I was born in a rural town in Utah and cultured in a mash of Mormon spiritualism, government-skepticism, and entrepreneurial pragmatism. I left the faith, a small business, a failed marriage, and Utah for California in 1996. There, I ran a hot-spring endowed desert spa-tel for an LA-based architect and designer and duo and nurtured love for the didjeridu and the diderduist Randin Graves.
Sometime in 1998, Randin and I made a survey of Australia hoping to get to the bottom of our mutual interest in the didjeridu. Our curiosity led us to Arnhem Land and the Yolngu. After that experience, my interest in the didjeridu waned and a fascination with basketry took its place. In 2003 Randin won a Fulbright fellowship, we relocated to Australia. Over the five years we lived on the Gove Peninsula, Randin completed a masters degree concerning the globalization and commodification of the didjeridu and worked in various capacities at the Yirrkala Art Centre and I directed a US-based, early-childhood education company, telecommuting and traveling between countries several times a year.
A leukemia diagnosis while visiting family in Utah late in 2008 forced our return to the United States. You can read that story as it happened on the Lymphoblaster Blog.
I initiated a BA in English at the University of Utah in the early 90s. Twenty-eight years later, at the end of a long career, I returned to the U to finished that BA and pick up a BS in Economics in 2019. I completed a BFA in Studio Art with a ceramics emphasis at the same institution in 2024.
Exhibitions etc.
2025 — “The Red Shoes,” Annotations in the Margins. UVU Gallery on 6th, Orem Utah. June 30-August 1.
2025 — “Fox & Hare,” Clay Arts Utah: A view of ceramic arts from the Utah Perspective. NCECA Featured Exhibition at the Calvin L. Rampton Salt Palace Convention Center, Salt Lake City, Utah. March 26-28.
2025 — “Predator Teapot,” Juried Functional Teapot Show III. Jurors Anna Mette Hjortsøj, Elisa Helland-Hansen, and Hamish Jackson. NCECA Featured Exhibition at the Calvin L. Rampton Salt Palace Convention Center, Salt Lake City, Utah. March 26-28.
2025 — “Artemia franciscana (Brine Shrimp #2, 1:17),” Macro to Micro: A Changing Utah. Westminster University, Dolores Dore Eccles Ceramics Center. Curated by Vanessa Romo and Shasta Krueger. March 17-29.
2025 — “Sphero-Conical Vessels,” Formed by Nature. Cottonwood Clay Studio, Midvale, Utah. Curated by Adam Addley and Shasta Krueger. March 25-29.
2025 — “Fin.” On the Wall – Celebrating Ceramics in Utah. Cottonwood Heights City Hall, Cottonwood Heights, UT. March 4-April 3.
2025 — “Match Girl,” 8th Annual Paper & Clay, Tippetts and Eccles Galleries at Utah State University, Logan, Utah. February 3-March 7. Winner, 2nd Place. K Stevenson, juror.
2024 — Therma | Thema, solo exhibition at Lost Acorn Gallery, Salt Lake City, December 10.
2024 — Seeker, Avenues Open Studios, Salt Lake City, September 21.
2024 — Curator, Ceramics Showcase, University of Utah Ceramics Display Cases, Salt Lake City, Utah. March 23-April 3.
2024 — “This is not Persephone,” Bountiful Davis Art Center Statewide Annual Exhibition, Bountiful, Utah May 17-July 27.
2024 — “Tulip,” 7th Annual Paper & Clay, Tippetts and Eccles Galleries at Utah State University, Logan, Utah. February 5-March 1.
2023 — “Genesis 3:1,” Brian Snap: Bad Artist, Gittins Gallery, University of Utah, Salt Lake City. August 21-September 22. Read the review by 15 Bytes.
2023 — “Two Turtles at Gikal,” State Wide Annual 2023 Mixed Media & Works on Paper, UMOCA, Salt Lake City, Utah. June 6-September 2023. Winner Jurors’ Award. See the Virtual Exhibition. Download the Catalog. Read review by 15 Bytes. Download the Booklet.
2023 — “The Lover and the Wife of the Middle Aged Man,” 6th Annual Paper & Clay, Tippetts and Eccles Galleries at Utah State University, Logan, Utah. January 30-February 24.
2022 — “Grendel,” Conflux: Acquainted, Gittins Gallery, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah. November 8-18.
2022 — “Basket of Pears,” Conflux: Blind Date, Shepherd Union Gallery, Weber State University, Ogden, Utah. October 7-26.
2022 — “Memento Mori” and “Wish Boxes,” 5th Annual Paper & Clay, Tippetts and Eccles Galleries at Utah State University, Logan, Utah. January 31-February 25.
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