This began with fingernails making marks in refractory bricks from an old kiln. A fascination with how soft yet so strong this material is. That quickly moved into making marks with old nails, hacksaw blades, and the Dremel. Marks turning into symbols, symbols coming together making stories, stories from patterns around me spurring thoughts and emotions coming through me, now frozen forever in these bricks.
Once glazed, the firing in the kiln bonded them together, forming a three-dimensional sculpture. Eventually, when I ran out of old bricks, the work transitioned into my first love, clay, and these bricks started to climb the walls. I knew these stories in patterns had to continue.
So became The Refractory Series.
What is home?
Ideally a place you feel safe in.
A place where what you don’t want doesn’t belong.
A place that protects you from the elements.
A place for the hearth.
A space where you can look out the window and see the past, present, and the future.
A space where you can bid the sun good morning and tell it farewell each evening.
I believe finding my home was an answer to a prayer.
