Over twentyish years have gone by since I first took an art class, and a lot of things have been painted, carved, printed, collaged, thrown, slabbed, coiled, water colored, photographed, developed, sketched, and drawn before arriving at the processes I use now. Being an art education major allowed me the freedom to take classes in painting, drawing, ceramics, printmaking, photography, even fabric design, and now a current high school art teacher, I still work in many of these processes. I've always loved little bits of each method, but never the full process of any.
Clay has been my favorite since college. I love the meticulous hand building processes and even throwing on the wheel (even though I'm not very good at the latter mentioned). The first tile I made was a product of playing around with left over slab scraps from a demonstration I'd just had for my pottery students. I began assembling sides to a square slab and once complete, it reminded me of a little painting canvas. I ordered white clay suited for tile work, and I became hooked to the process. Confession: I really like to be in control in all situations, so there's something very gratifying to me to be able to hand make the entire surface I will eventually carve and paint. As I carved and glazed the first tile, I knew I'd found the exact process I wanted to work in. I've always enjoyed the tediousness and texture found in carved linoleum or wood, and color is what I love about painting, so why not use my clay as my surface to carve into and play with color?
As people have asked me why I don't sell my art, I've always used the excuse of "well, I don't really feel like I've found my "thing." The beginning of h.made studio was a result of not being able to use that excuse anymore. After years of making, it's become clear to me that the clay tiles that I create are a coming together of parts of the processes that I love, while sharing images of little parts of places that make up my story.
