“One of the definitions of mindfulness is to remember. We can’t be who we are without remembering who we come from and where we come from.”

Kaira Jewel Lingo, “The Stream of Our Ancestors”

As a young child I held a curiosity and fascination for my family origins. My immigrant forebears came from southern Europe in the early 20th century, bringing with them customs and beliefs that painted my perceptions of what is beautiful and useful. A great example is my nonna’s ravioli bowl, which represented abundance, family, and beauty all at once. That curiosity to understand my roots brought me back to Europe again and again, where I explored the forms and surfaces of my potter ancestors, the ancient Roman potters and their glossy tableware, the medieval Spanish ceramicists with their fusion of Islamic and Christian styles. When I come to my potter’s table, it is the images of those old pots that inform my creative process. 

I am primarily a hand builder, making most of my pieces from slabs of clay, which I roll out and impress with my own hand-carved stamps and rollers. I then cut those impressed slabs as a dressmaker would when making a dress, using a series of templates that I transform into various utilitarian shapes. I am interested in functional pieces - pitchers, vases, jars, bowls - that add color, texture and the remembrance of ancient forms to the modern home.

My work includes impressions and patterns. They are often abstractions of the northwest landscape: flowers, leaves, branches, rocks, pebbles. My surfaces tend to be saturated, a maximalist interpretation of my world.