Narrative Pottery

My strong background in illustration is evident in my narrative pottery pieces. They tell stories in the tradition of Greek and Roman narrative painters. With great attention to detail I explore various themes.

My love of color and drawing combined with a romanticism and fantasy create a personal style which I feel give each individual ceramic piece a story, a book, and a creation.

“I believe that every right implies a responsibility, every opportunity, an obligation, every possession, a duty.”
– John D. Rockefeller Jr.

The Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research was founded in 1901 by John D. Rockefeller Sr. In 1955 they expanded their mission to include education. The Rockefeller Foundation was incorporated in NY State to “Promote the well being of mankind throughout the world.”

These hand painted porcelain eggs are symbolic depictions of the boards of the institute. The boards include General Education Board, International Education Board, Bureau of Social Hygiene, Sanitary Comission International Board, and the Eraducation of Hookworm.

The Three Graces represent the giving, receiving, and returning of gifts. Corn and the grapevine being the greatest and most necessary gift of human life. The Graces were attendants to Demeter, the Goddess of Corn and Dionysus, God of Wine. After the dark winter the Graces symbolize the returning of Spring reassuring life’s renewal, thus completing the cycle of life.

“These three, on men, all gracious gifts bestow
Which deck the body or adorn the mind.
To make them lovely or well—favored show:
As comedy carriage, entertainment kind.
Sweet semblance, friendly offices that bind.
And all the complements of courtesy;
They teach us how to each degree and kind
We should ourselves demean, to low, to high.
To friends, to foes; which skill men call Civility.”

—Spencer