Biography
In the late 1980s I was waiting tables in London Ontario while my partner Steve pursued graduate work at UWO when I decided that I needed a creative outlet. Fanshawe College offered community pottery classes, and I began instruction there with Craig Marucci, a proficient potter and landscape artist. Other influences in my life at that time were Susan Day, who was already an accomplished ceramic artist, and multi-media artist Mac Caloren, who joined me at Fanshawe to explore working with clay. Soon I was hooked, and Steve gave me a birthday present, a second-hand motorized kick-wheel, which I still use.
When Steve began post-doctoral work at Queen’s University (Kingston ON) in 1993 I began to make pots full time. I immediately joined the Kingston Potters’ Guild, and had the good fortune to have a landlady who allowed me use of the kiln in her garage. For reasons of economy, I used only one or two glazes, and decorated my pots with coloured slips, which were cheap, and used either sgraffito (“scratching”) or paper stencils to make patterns through slip to the contrasting clay underneath. Steve’s cousin Rosemary Molesworth was an amazing potter who used these techniques in her work; she was generous with her knowledge, tips, and recipes, and never stopped passing along her books and her encouragement.
After my kids were born in 1997 and 2000 I took a long hiatus but returned to pottery in 2012. My neighbour Sue Lyon, a potter and pottery instructor, offered moral support and space in her kiln for my work as I eased back into making. I rejoined the Kingston Potters’ Guild in 2022.