Beginnings

So how did I get started in all this?

When I was a kid, my mom took some ceramics classes at the local college and it just always looked like fun. The idea that you could make something out of mud and bake it and turn it into ceramic was just cool! I was too young to take a class, but she found a lady across the street from my piano teacher that made slipcast pieces you could paint and glaze and she would fire. I must have made a hundred various things.

Fast forward 25 years. I've been transplanted to North Carolina. My wife and I are visiting the NC Zoo in Asheboro, and exploring our new state, when we discover Seagrove, NC and the North Carolina Pottery Center. After looking at the exhibits in the main building, we went out to the education building where Linda Russell was giving a demo. We were the only ones there, and after about the 10th question I asked, she cleaned off her wheel, got up and said 'Sit down. The only way to know it is to do it.' I still have that small, squat pot I threw that day. I was hooked.

Months later, I discovered Raleigh Parks department's Art program, and that I'd been driving past the Pullen Arts Center twice a day on my commute. I've been taking classes and using the studios ever since.