Visually inspired by textiles, patterns, and illustrations, my journey toward finding my artistic voice came from a desire to create pottery that was colorful, graphic, and well-defined. Armed with little knowledge or access to outside technologies, my early experimentations began with hand-cutting plastic stencils and craft-punching paper as a way to explore repeating patterns on functional ceramics. By combining hand-cut stencils with underglaze I can apply imagery to flat slabs that can later be draped over a hump mold and transformed into a functional object. It's a simple technique, but over time, working only on a flat surface felt finite; using premanufactured craft punches and hand-cut plastic stencils was limiting and inefficient. The handcut plastic stencils were brittle, easily compromised through washing and reuse, and would eventually break and need to be re-cut. However, this method was an accessible way to begin using a specific combination of materials and techniques with a low financial investment. These were the earliest inceptions of what would become my body of work today.
...